Latest news with #historians
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Quipu: The Inca's Mysterious Recording Device
Long before Spanish colonization, the indigenous people of Peru kept track of important dates and numbers, and perhaps even stories, using a mysterious coding system of strings and knots called a quipu. When the Spanish invaded, they decided these bundles of strings and knots were idolatrous and pagan, in opposition to the Catholic Church. They burned them, hoping to quell any thought of resistance. Quipu means knot in Quechua, the dominant indigenous language in the region. You might mistake a quipu for a brightly colored necklace or headdress, but it is a communication device. Unlike their Mayan and Aztec counterparts, the Incas had no written language. They used quipu instead. Quipus consist of a series of colored, knotted cords made from cotton, wool, or other animal fibers. The knots and their placement on the cords represented numerical values. In some cases, it carried other information, such as dates or records of events. The use of the quipu dates back to 2500 BCE, long before the Inca Empire emerged. We still don't know how it originated. Deciphering quipus is tough. Its purpose and meaning can change depending on the length of the cord, the number of knots, the color, the way the cords are twisted and woven, the material, and the arrangement. While some historians think they were used almost exclusively to communicate numbers, others believe they were capable of storytelling and poetry. Certainly, the main purpose of the quipu was to track and manage the data of populations, goods, resources, and taxes. It was the administrative tool of the empire. Each knot on the cord had a specific value depending on its position, with different knot types (such as single knots, long knots, or figure-eight knots) representing different values. The Incas used the decimal system and knots to record 1s, 10s, 100s, 1000s, and so on. The colors of the cords could indicate categories like resources, people, or geographical locations. For example, red represented warriors or war, white represented silver, and yellow symbolized gold. The quipus were managed by quipucamayocs, which means "quipu authority." These administrators were the record keepers, accountants, bookkeepers, mathematicians, census takers, and historians of the empire. The smooth running of the empire rested almost entirely on their shoulders. The Incas had a complex road network called the Qhapaq Ñan. All these roads led to the capital of Cusco. Endurance runners called chasquis transported quipus along these roads, resting or passing them to other runners in supply stations called tambos posted every few kilometers. Messengers could quickly carry news of an Incan victory, the death of an emperor, or details of an enemy attack from province to province. After smallpox had killed the ruler Huayna Capac, his sons, Atahualpa and Huascar, battled for the throne. Atahualpa triumphed and killed his brother. To further legitimize his ascension, Atahualpa had all records destroyed. This meant burning quipus that recorded anything to do with his brother. Atahualpa even killed the quipucamayocs. "[It was] a total renewal, what the Incas called a pachakuti or a turning over of time and space," historian Mark Cartwright wrote. Later, a Spanish governor of Peru, Vaca de Castro, tried to find quipucamayocs to teach him about the land. Eventually, he came across two who had survived the purge. "They found them wandering in the mountains, terrorized by the tyrants of the past," according to historian John A. Yeakel. Though the Spanish destroyed many quipus, some chose to study them. Inca Garcilaso de la Vega was the son of a conquistador and an Incan prince, and acted as an intermediary between the two peoples. He learned about the quipu as part of his upbringing and wrote extensively about them: When my father's Indians came to town on Midsummer's Day to pay their tribute, they brought me the quipus; and the curacas [local leaders] asked my mother to take note of their stories, for they mistrusted the Spaniards, and feared that they would not understand them. I was able to reassure them by re-reading what I had noted down under their dictation. Likewise, a rogue Jesuit priest named Blas Valera advocated for learning from the quipus. Also half Spanish and half Inca, Valera proclaimed that the Incas were the real rulers of Peru. He died under house arrest in 1597. In 2015, anthropologist Sabine Hyland got a call from the remote Andean village of San Juan de Collata. This little village held some of the last remaining quipus. Villagers granted Hyland access to two quipus from the 18th century. They told her that for years, guarding the quipus was a coming-of-age ritual for local adolescent boys. After seeing one of Hyland's documentaries, the village elders had reached out, hoping she would visit. "Over the next couple days, we would learn that these multicolored quipus, each of which is just over two feet long, were narrative epistles created by local chiefs during a time of war in the 18th century," Hyland wrote. The elders recounted the story of a failed rebellion against the Spanish. A leader, betrayed by his associates, was imprisoned and eventually executed. He had used the quipu to tell his countrymen that he was the ruling Inca Emperor. Not far from the village of San Juan de Collata, Hyland was invited by a local schoolteacher to examine a hybrid quipu. The hybrid was set on a wooden board containing a ledger of names and multicolored quipu threads. "The board bears the names of villagers, while the quipu cord associated with each name indicates the contribution of labor and/or goods that the individual was expected to provide in a community ceremony," Hyland wrote. Much to Hyland's astonishment, quipus were used in the village until the 1940s for communal, administrative, and record-keeping purposes.
Washington Post
30-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Trump is wrecking American competitiveness
When historians write about the challenges to America's global hegemony, they will point to the rise of China, the first full-fledged peer competitor to the United States in decades. They will also note the return of Russia and its efforts to disrupt the American-led security order in Europe. These are familiar patterns in the rise and fall of world powers. What is new and surprising is that these challenges, far from uniting America, have turned it on itself, with its government tearing down many of the crucial elements of its extraordinary success.
Fox News
10-05-2025
- General
- Fox News
Archaeologists uncover ancient 'factory' used to produce coveted purple dye mentioned in Bible
Historians recently unveiled their findings about an ancient purple dye factory located in modern-day Israel — revealing a glimpse into life during biblical times. In an article recently published in the journal PLOS One, historians announced the discovery of Tel Shiqmona, an archaeological mound south of the Israeli city of Haifa. The site is located on the coast of the Mediterreanean Sea. Tel Shiqmona, the article's authors say, "can unequivocally be identified as a specialized facility for large-scale and long-term production of the lucrative purple dye." The site dates back as early as 1100 B.C., during the Iron Age. In Biblical terms, the site predated the reigns of Kings Solomon and David by over a century, and likely became more sophisticated over time. "It is the only site in the Near East or around the Mediterranean – indeed, in the entire world – where a sequence of purple-dye workshops has been excavated and which has clear evidence for large-scale, sustained manufacture of purple dye and dyeing in a specialized facility for half a millennium, during the Iron Age," the article describes. "The number and diversity of artifacts related to purple dye manufacturing are unparalleled." Pictures show fragments of vats with purple dye stains, as well as purple residue on various stone tools. What makes the site so unique is that it produced purple dye on an industrial scale – which historians previously thought was introduced by Romans in the first century A.D. The dye, which was harvested by crushing the shells of certain mollusks, was highly valued in antiquity, and mentioned in the Bible several times. One biblical mention of purple dye occurs in Acts 16:14, which describes a female merchant. "One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth," the verse reads. "She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message." In Mark 15:17, Jesus was dressed in purple cloth by his captors in order to humiliate him, as the color was associated with royalty. "And they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him," the verse says. At Tel Shiqmona, researchers used a variety of techniques, including chemical and mineralogical analyses, to understand each artifact that was uncovered. In an interview with New Scientist, archaeologist Golan Shalvi said the mollusks would secrete a greenish fluid when crushed, and the fluid would turn purple when oxidized. "However, in order to transform it into an actual dye – one that chemically bonds with textiles – it must be processed into a solution through a complex series of chemical steps," Salvi explained. "It was an industrial site throughout most of the Iron Age, without monumental architecture or any particular beauty or elegance," he added. "I imagine it as a very smelly place – especially to a modern nose – since the production process emitted a terrible odor. I picture wool fleeces dyed in various shades drying outside and inside the buildings, which may have given the site a purplish-reddish-blue hue." The team of analysts found that the factory at Tel Shiqmona both produced purple dye and then dyed fibers and fleeces, as opposed to simply producing dye. "The size and opening of the vats would have allowed the dipping of the fleeces or fibers into the vats," the article explains. "Given their substantial weight when full, it is unlikely that the vats were intended to be moved, nor could they be tilted. Producing the dye in these very large vessels and then transferring it to other containers for dyeing (at Shiqmona or elsewhere) does not seem to be a plausible reconstruction of the process." "Therefore, we conclude that the entire manufacture, from harvesting the snails to dyeing, was conducted at the site, and that dye-production and dyeing were conducted in one container – apparently a rather efficient process."
BBC News
09-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
New memorial announced for Jersey slave labourers
A Jersey visitor destination has unveiled plans for a new public memorial to honour slave labourers who were brought to the island in World War War Tunnels, which tells the story of life in the island during the German Occupation, is planning a large sculpture called Sentinel of Souls and a commemorative trail, said owner Lance said the aim was to "create a significant memorial that draws public attention to the terrible cost of war, the lives lost, and the human suffering endured during the Occupation".Thousands of slave labourers were brought to the Channel Islands by the Germans to build concrete defences, including a gun emplacement at Corbiere. Mr Trevellyan said the privately funded project, part of wider plans under way to upgrade the tunnels, would involve a consultation with local communities, artists, and historians, with local artists expected to contribute to the final tunnels are a former underground hospital complex in St Lawrence.
