Experts striving to untangle Inca Empire secrets

From: Deseret News (Salt Lake City) | Date: December 3, 2003| Author: Drew Benson Associated Press | Copyright information

LIMA, Peru -- To the casual observer, they appear to be little more than multicolored tangles of arm-length strings. But a growing number of experts think "quipus" may hold the secrets of the Inca Empire.

The Incas built the greatest pre-Columbian empire in South America, unifying Andean cultures from what is modern day Colombia to Chile for about a hundred years before they fell to Spanish conquistadors in the early 1500s.

They left extensive roads, irrigation systems and imposi...

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