# Medrano 2024: How Can Data Science Contribute to Understanding the Khipu Code?

> Manuel Medrano, Ashok Khosla, 2024. 7 records on Mysteries Department cite it. The largest computational study of the corpus.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D4V7R9J4S9R/how-can-data-science-contribute-to-understanding-the-khipu  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

---

[Sources](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources)[Inka khipus: the knotted-cord records](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu)Medrano 2024

**0**

# How Can Data Science Contribute to Understanding the Khipu Code?

Manuel Medrano, Ashok Khosla, 2024. _Latin American Antiquity 36(2), 497-516_.

Generalises the Ascher sum relations across a 650-khipu corpus, finds them in at least 74 per cent of khipus, identifies top cords as markers of working khipus, rejoins two fragments by arithmetic and proposes white pendants as boundary markers.

**Inka khipus: the knotted-cord records** Articledoi: **[10.1017/laq.2024.5](https://doi.org/10.1017/laq.2024.5)** Checked against the original0

## What it's used for here

The largest computational study of the corpus.

## Cited by on this site 7 records

[Internal sums are common in khipus, so totals can be reached in more than one way.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu/evidence/EVD0D4V848C189J/internal-sums-are-common-in-khipus-so-totals-can-be-reached)

Evidence

EVD

[Sum relations characterise at least 74 per cent of 650 khipus, so most of the corpus is arithmetic.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu/evidence/EVD0D4V80V040Z1/sum-relations-characterise-at-least-74-per-cent-of-650)

Evidence

EVD

[Sum relations hold across most of the corpus under the positional reading.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu/evidence/EVD0D4V84ZT3T3S/sum-relations-hold-across-most-of-the-corpus-under-the)

Evidence

EVD

[White pendants appear to mark boundaries of sum-cord groups, a structural convention.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu/evidence/EVD0D4V82226ZYN/white-pendants-appear-to-mark-boundaries-of-sum-cord-groups)

Evidence

EVD

[Medrano and Khosla test Ascher sum relations across 650 khipus](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu/events/EVT0D4V7YWG4CQ2/medrano-and-khosla-test-ascher-sum-relations-across-650)

EVT

[Ashok Khosla](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu/people/FIG0D4V7WY011HK/ashok-khosla)

FIG

[Inka khipus: the knotted-cord records](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu)

The mystery article

MYS

## Cite it

```
Medrano, M., & Khosla, A. (2024). How Can Data Science Contribute to Understanding the Khipu Code?. Latin American Antiquity 36(2), 497-516. https://doi.org/10.1017/laq.2024.5
```

[Read it free at doi.org](https://doi.org/10.1017/laq.2024.5)

Key

**SRC** 0D4V7R9J4S9R

Kind

Journal article

Rights

The publisher's

Kept

27 Oct 2026, for editors

Checked

Against the published article

Added by

[apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo)

The record

Bibliographic records are CC0. Take this one as CSL-JSON, BibTeX or RIS.

[CSL-JSON](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D4V7R9J4S9R/how-can-data-science-contribute-to-understanding-the-khipu/csl.json)