Knot writing in China and America

I heard only about these two instances.

 

Originally posted by pinguin In any case, in Peru, quipus accounting (not writing) is very old. In Caral, Peru, a quipu Inca style was found. Caral was founded circa 2500 BC.

 

I think it was dated around 3000 BC actually. Interestengly enough 2500-3000 BC time spam is exactly the time when Chinese knot writing was supposedly used.  In fact, Chinese knot writing was primarly used for the accounting as well.

 

 

This is that the demand for writing came from counting activities in line of explanations or justifications to provide authenticity. This has been associated with the origin of accounting (Littleton, 1933; 1953). The need to develop counting was one of the major tasks faced by people in the prehistoric environment. As productivity improved over time the need to keep accurate records of surplus became obvious. Several methods were invented to satisfy this need (Guo, 1984; 1988). The invention of knotting is a good example (Guo, 1988, p.7).6

In Early Antiquity, knotted cords were used to govern with. Later, our saints replaced them with written characters and tallies.

In the ancient past, during the time of Rang Cheng, Xuan Yuan, Fu Xi, and Shen Nong, people tied knots to communicate. For a major matter, use string to tie a big knot; for a minor matter, tie a small knot. The number of knots corresponds to the number of matters to be dealt with.

Originally posted by pinguin My thesis? If they are quite old and have the same origin... perhaps the idea crossed the Bering strait