Daniel Hahn

Does knotted string constitute ‘writing’?

Quipus, the accounting devices used by the Incans, are one of Silvia Ferrara’s many fascinating examples of speech made visible

Quipu, dating from the Inca Imperial Epoch 1300-1532. [Alamy]

  • The Greatest Invention: A History of the World in Nine Mysterious Scripts

    Silvia Ferrara, translated by Todd Portnowitz

    Picador, pp. 304, £20

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