# Hyland 2025: Stable isotope evidence for the participation of commoners in Inka khipu production

> Sabine Hyland, Kit Lee, Hannah Koon et al., 2025. 8 records on Mysteries Department cite it. Evidence on who made khipus.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D4V7S8T72DF/stable-isotope-evidence-for-the-participation-of-commoners  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Sources](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources)[Inka khipus: the knotted-cord records](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu)Hyland 2025

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# Stable isotope evidence for the participation of commoners in Inka khipu production

Sabine Hyland, Kit Lee, Hannah Koon et al., 2025. _Science Advances 11(33), eadv1950_.

Carbon, nitrogen and sulfur isotopes from the human-hair primary cord of KH0631 indicate a commoner's diet, challenging the view that only male bureaucratic elites made khipus.

**Inka khipus: the knotted-cord records** Articledoi: **[10.1126/sciadv.adv1950](https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adv1950)** Checked against the original0

## What it's used for here

Evidence on who made khipus.

## Cited by on this site 8 records

[Khipu making extended beyond the elite to commoners and local communities.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu/answers/ANS0D4V86EP26N3/khipu-making-extended-beyond-the-elite-to-commoners-and)

Answer

ANS

[Khipus were made and read by a class of male bureaucratic specialists (khipukamayuq).](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu/answers/ANS0D4V85Z22BAX/khipus-were-made-and-read-by-a-class-of-male-bureaucratic)

Answer

ANS

[KH0631, Inka khipu with a human-hair primary cord](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu/artifacts/ART0D4V88D63685/kh0631-inka-khipu-with-a-human-hair-primary-cord)

ART

[KH0631, an Inka-period khipu with a human-hair primary cord, was made by someone with a commoner's diet.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu/evidence/EVD0D4V86PG4RZG/kh0631-an-inka-period-khipu-with-a-human-hair-primary-cord)

Evidence

EVD

[The hair cord of KH0631 shows a diet typical of low-ranking commoners.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu/evidence/EVD0D4V866W7644/the-hair-cord-of-kh0631-shows-a-diet-typical-of-low-ranking)

Evidence

EVD

[Isotope analysis of the hair cord of KH0631 points to a commoner maker](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu/events/EVT0D4V7Z4A5Q6E/isotope-analysis-of-the-hair-cord-of-kh0631-points-to-a)

EVT

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

The mystery article

MYS

[Who made and read khipus?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/khipu/questions/QST0D4V80BC5DXR/who-made-and-read-khipus)

Question

QST

## Cite it

```
Hyland, S., Lee, K., Koon, H., Laukkanen, S., & Spindler, L. (2025). Stable isotope evidence for the participation of commoners in Inka khipu production. Science Advances 11(33), eadv1950. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adv1950
```

[Read it free at doi.org](https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adv1950)

Key

**SRC** 0D4V7S8T72DF

Kind

Journal article

Rights

The publisher's

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/SRC0D4V7S8T72DF/stable-isotope-evidence-for-the-participation-of-commoners/csl.json)