For the first time, really, we can see how information that was of interest to the state was moving up and down in a set of interrelated khipu.

We know a great deal of the bureaucracy was occupied in overseeing tribute labor for the state, so I suspect a large percentage of the quipu had to do with labor.

We think those may be the narrative ones,

We hypothesize that the arrangement of three figure-eight knots at the start of these khipu represented the place identifier, or toponym, Puruchuco,

The use of conventional signs is my definition of writing, … information is being passed through three different levels in ways suggestive of a conventional system.

We suggest that any khipu moving within the state administrative system bearing an initial arrangement of three figure-eight knots would have been immediately recognizable to Inca administrators as an account pertaining to the palace of...