Saints Talk: Unravelling an Ancient Code Written in Strings by Professor Sabine Hyland

Prof Sabine Hyland, is teaming with Andean locals to solve the enigma of a mysterious form of writing with strings. For over 15 years, Hyland has collaborated with elders in remote Andean villages to discover new insights into how native Peruvians communicated through 3D-coloured cords known as “khipus”. Her research has uncovered isolated communities where khipus – once thought to have been wiped out during European invasion in the 1500s – were used within living memory. The Incas kept their accounts, histories, and sacred knowledge on khipus; if we could decipher these knotted cords, we could gain an insider’s view to their extraordinary empire. Hyland’s work has demonstrated, among other things, that khipus signified partially through the tactile feel of different animal fibres and the twist of knots and thread, suggesting an indigenous epistemology in which the sense of touch plays as vital a role as sight.