An article in the Independent reports that a leading scholar believes the Incas may have used a form of binary code 500 years before computers were invented. ‘Gary Urton, professor of anthropology at Harvard University, has re-analysed the complicated knotted strings of the Inca – decorative objects called khipu – and found they contain a seven-bit binary code capable of conveying more than 1,500 separate units of information…If Professor Urton is right, it means the Inca not only invented a form of binary code more than 500 years before the invention of the computer, but they used it as part of the only three-dimensional written language.

Selected Paragraphs from Original Article 
 “…complicated knotted strings of the Inca – decorative objects called khipu – and found they contain a seven-bit binary code capable of conveying more than 1,500 separate units of information…” 
 “…This could mean the code used by the makers allowed them to convey some 1,536 separate units of information, comparable to the estimated 1,000 to 1,500 Sumerian cuneiform signs, and double the number of signs in the hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptians and the Maya of Central America…” 
 “…There is also some anecdotal evidence that khipu were more than mere knots on a string used for storing calculations. The Spanish recorded capturing one Inca native trying to conceal a khipu which, he said, recorded everything done in his homeland “both the good and the evil”. Unfortunately, in this as in many other encounters, the Spanish burnt the khipu and punished the native for having it, a typical response that did not engender an understanding of how the Inca used their khipu.”