Describing and Photographing the Khipus
From June through October 2005, Carrie Brezine described and Frank Salomon
photographed the Rapaz legacy khipus thread by thread. Unlike previous
reports, which are based on impressions of the khipus as a mass, the
current study uses an analytic registry. The photos below demonstrate
the peculiar makeup that was detected.
The “Monster Khipu” Legend Refuted
Impressionistic reports in the press and television have spread the notion
that the Rapaz patrimony consists of one gigantic khipu. This is untrue.
Kaha Wayi contains an archive of many diverse khipus; 263 artifacts were
counted. The original number is unknown because unidentified hands in the
past made repairs that sometimes combined fragments of multiple khipus, but
the original number of individual khipus was in the hundreds.
The Character of Rapaz Khipus
Like all Rapaz khipus, the khipus shown here, KR 011 and KR 025, differ
greatly from Inka designs. First, the Rapaz khipu does not consist of a
main cord with hanging pendants but rather of a single cord onto which
meaningful objects are tied. Second, the Rapaz khipu does not use the
Inka system of knots in decimal array. In Rapaz, the meaning is not in
the knot but in the knotted object. Rapaz khipus are up to three or four
times as thick as Inka khipus, and some are 15 meters long or longer.
(Click on pictures for a larger image).
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Khipu KR 011 shows complex design in the construction of its subsidiaries. Subsidiary 4 is braided, a technique rare but not unknown in prehispanic khipus. |
Khipu KR 025 is one of the longer ones. It looks smaller than it is because excess torsion in its spinning causes segments of the cord to curl back on themselves in coils. The controlled use of this tendency may be a characteristic of the Rapaz technique. |
“Dolls” or Figurines
Our study shows new details of the ten personages figured in the khipus.
Two carry coca bags, with actual coca leaves inside. This indicates they are
people in ritual activity. At least two are dressed in non-peasant style
clothing. One of these wears clothing reminiscent of military uniforms at the
end of the colonial era. The other is a lady whose long dress resembles styles
of the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries. (Click on pictures for a larger image).
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Figurine KR 09 wears Euro-American style clothing similar to that of the late 19th or early 20th century. Her elegant long dress, with its bell-shaped skirt, has finely sewn pleats. An ribbon that was originally pink and of industrial origin adorns her head. |
Figurine KR 08 is damaged, having lost body and legs. But in its right hand a marine shell is visible. This shell suggests a pilgrimage to the Pacific, sometimes practiced in connection with water rituals. Or could it represent the conch trumpet, a symbol of mobilization or war? |
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This enlarged detail of figurine KR 01 shows a tiny coca bag filled with the sacred leaves. The figurine wears homespun woolen cloth and seems to be a peasant engaged in ritual. |
Figurine KR 06 wears a long jacket, a red dickey or bib, and a broadbrim hat. The style recalls portraits of military men from the end of the colonial era or from the beginning of Peruvian Independence (1820s). |
While repairing the floor between the lower and upper levels of Kaha Wayi,
the young Rapacino Fabio Cóndor noticed a small cross buried between layers
of the original construction. It is made of grasses native to the high puna
(grasslands just below the uppermost limit of plant life). It is the only
Christian emblem in the walled precinct and it may signal the insertion of
the Christian God within the hierarchy of the deified mountains, a phenomenon
studied by historians of popular colonial religion.
(Click on picture for a larger image).
(Click on picture for a larger image).
This little cross (38cm x 20cm) contains no wood. It is wholly made of wild plants from the high puna, the landscape said to belong to the auki or deified mountains. In the course of repairs the cross was returned to its place.
Conserving the Offering Altar
The conservators Rosa and Rosalía Choque cleaned and reinforced endangered
objects that are used in ritual. Among these is a small table cloth cover found
in Kaha Wayi used for offering an Andean sacrifice or mesa. Advised by the
ritualist Don Melecio Montes, they wove a textile resistant to fungus. It
supports the revered fragments of the traditional textile.
(Click on pictures for a larger image).
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The result of the conservation is shown on top of the temporary protective box that sheltered the altar from dust. |
Textile conservator Rosa Choque cleans fungus off the cloth that covers the offering table or altar in Kaha Wayi. |
An Archaeological Floor in Pasa Qullqa
The archaeologist Víctor Falcón discovered an archaeological floor with carbon
remains from an apparently sacrificial hearth in the semisubterranean level of
the old community storehouse. The archaeological indices seem to indicate that
Pasa Qullqa is the older of the two, having some prehispanic design traits but
perhaps being built in post-columbian times.
(Click on picture for a larger image).
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Archaeological excavation in the semisubterranean level of Pasa Qullqua brought to light a floor with an apparently sacrificial hearth. |
Repairing the Two Historic Houses
The architect Gino de las Casas and the architectural restoration technician
Edgar Centeno carried out repairs on the two houses by duplicating or recycling
original materials: mortar, puna grass (ichu), stone, and several native woods.
(Click on picture for a larger image).
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Master roofer Melanio Falcón ties new thatch onto Pasa Qullqa. Throughout the architectural work we recycled or copied the original materials and techniques. |