I can't not go all over the place here to make two small points. But in summary, author has tunnel vision, and with repetition, wasted column inches. Should hav

I can't not go all over the place here to make two small points. But in summary, author has tunnel vision, and with repetition, wasted column inches. Should have said more with less. I find pre-european contact N & S American civilizations fascinating, but with my casual interest I can only reliably name three off-hand, Maya, Aztec and Inca. There are piles more: Norte Chico, Cahokia, Zapotec, Toltec, Olmec, Chimor, Mixtec, Moche, Mississippian, Puebloan, Totonac, Teotihuacan, Huastec, Purépecha, Izapa, Mazatec, Muisca, and all the other distinct Native American cultures. I don't think there is an exhaustive list. Author could have spared a sentence here or there to help place the Incas for us, to give us more than we already knew by the first few paragraphs. The practice of mnemonic knotting is ancient. I believe artifacts have been found all over the world related to primitive civilizations going back to the Paleolithic, and I am pretty sure there are some famous ones of medieval European origins that are on display in some Irish museum(s). But my search fu is not strong, and all I can recall is reading something (I think) Christopher Tolkien wrote about what his father's "lays" actually were: the writing is his father's translation from (allegedly, obviously that's fiction, but we play along) a physical "lay," which is a product of mnemonic knotting. J.R.R Tolkien's lays were, in origin, in universe, these long textile-like things that may look like embroidery or a banner to any not already knowing what it is, which is mnemonic knotting. And although Tolkien's lays are fiction, lays are real things. I just can't produce a link to an image of one, but I have seen such images. And my point here is: was the author unaware of the very long history of mnemonic knotting? Perhaps they might have said, "like the famous [such and such] on display at the [blah blah blah] that gives a full account of [8 generations of a large and successful pre-Roman family in Scotland, or whatever]." tl;dr The author is cuckoo for quipu.