Aside -- I was a little confused, I'd only ever seen it spelled "Quipu" before. I assumed it was a Spanish or Portuguese word and shouldn't need to be transliterated (thus the multiple spellings). It's not -- it's a word from the native Peruvians and therefore does need transliteration.

From the wikipedia article [1]:

> Quipu is the Spanish spelling and the most common spelling in English.[citation needed] Khipu (pronounced [ˈkʰipu], plural: khipukuna) is the word for "knot" in Cusco Quechua; the kh is an aspirated k. In most Quechua varieties, the term is kipu.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu

> These ropes were unique because their existence affirmed a written census the Spanish had recorded in 1670

That would scream "Rosetta stone" to any archaeologist :-)

Can anyone find the original paper referenced here? Searching the journal’s archive and Google scholar isn’t turning it up.

Article says it's due in January.

No example? :/