Hi folks,
A couple of weeks ago, I invited reader****ps here to emply their
historical/language/cultural and, above all, decipherment skills in the
service of breaking one of the great remaining mysteries of the
archeological world ... breaking the Inca khipu (knot-record) system
which the Incas used in place of writing.
Well, since then, looking at a related phenomenon, tocapu, or highly
abstract symbols which were embroidered in belts across the Inca-era
ceremonial garments, I seem to have run into success :-)
Using the method proposed by William Burns Glynn, an amateur
cryptologist who studied both khipus and tocapus for the past several
decades, this evening I was able to translate a number of the the
shorter inscriptions on some of these ceremonial garments. (I posted
pictures of about a dozen of these garments on my blog a number of days
ago).
William Burns Glynn has proposed that the Incas used a 10 consonant
system to record information both on khipus and by means of these
stylized tocapu patterns.
Anyway, I employed the method on a couple of the less complicated
garments and (to my surprise :-) was able to arrive at some reasonable
translations.
The best being for a garment that I labeled TBC3. The translation
being:
Worthy Speaker (Oracle) of High Cusco.
Given that these ceremonial garments were presumably used in state /
religious functions, the translation makes sense.
Anyway, below is a picture of the belt of symbols that I investigated:
http://www.geocities.com/denniskriz/tocapu/decipher-tbc3.jpg
As well as pictures of the other ceremonial garments that I put up on
the blog for investigation.
http://www.geocities.com/denniskriz/tocapu-project.html
Finally, for a deeper background as well as a listing of a great many
other resources available either online of via bookstores, please refer
to the Popular Khipu Decipherment Project blog itself.
http://pop-khipu-project.blogspot.com/
Take care ... and play :-)
Dennis
denniskriz@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
|
