4 ms·

A single lock of hair could rewrite what we know about Inca record-keeping

79 points by warrenm 1y ago

warrenm 1y ago
Alternative link: https://archive.is/E6AyR https://archive.is/E6AyR
marc_abonce 1y ago
> the team took a small sample from the cord’s loose end and used an instrument called a mass spectrometer to measure tiny variations in the hair’s isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur. Those isotopes hold clues to a person’s diet, such as the amounts of maize and meat they ate in life. Maize, for example, is among the crops that rely on a form of photosynthesis known as C4 photosynthesis, which causes more of the isotope carbon-13 to build up in their tissues than in many other types of plants. Elevated levels of carbon-13 in a hair sample would most likely signal a maize-rich diet, Hyland says. Similarly, a meat-rich diet tends to raise the body’s levels of the isotope nitrogen-15. It's so impressive that we can estimate someone's diet from a hair sample. I had no idea that this was possible.
- dyauspitr 1y ago
  You can tell if someone has smoked weed at any point in the past 3 months if your hair is long enough.
  - dingnuts 1y ago
    that's why stoners are known for having buzz cuts
    - AndrewOMartin 1y ago
      The stoners who have an interest in not being exposed as such.
    - geoduck14 1y ago
      Isn't this the reason why Britney Spears cut her hair a coupleb of decades back?
      - n1b0m 1y ago
        No, she did it as an act of rebellion and to reclaim control amidst intense media scrutiny and a feeling of being constantly judged. She described it as a way to push back against the constant pressure and invasion of her privacy.
        aaron695 1y ago
        There is court testimony it was drug testing - https://www.reuters.com/article/business/britney-spears-hooked-on-drugs-in-2007-former-confidante-testifies-idUSL1E8LNHI7/#:~:text=Spears%20told%20him%20she%20infamously,battle%20against%20Federline%2C%20Lutfi%20testified. https://www.reuters.com/article/business/britney-spears-hook... Can you link your source? I'd say it was part of some sort of manic/meltdown episode with multiple things going on with some logic. She was under a conservatorship for good reason, it's not some Deep State conspiracy. I'd like to hear her explanation in her words. [edit] - From her book I went into a hair salon, and I took the clippers, and I shaved off all my hair. Everyone thought it was hilarious. Look how crazy she is! Even my parents acted embarrassed by me. But nobody seemed to understand that I was simply out of my mind with grief. My children had been taken away from me. With my head shaved, everyone was scared of me, even my mom. No one would talk to me anymore because I was too ugly. My long hair was a big part of what people liked—I knew that. I knew a lot of guys thought long hair was hot. Shaving my head was a way of saying to the world: Fuck you. You want me to be pretty for you? Fuck you. You want me to be good for you? Fuck you. You want me to be your dream girl? Fuck you. I’d been the good girl for years. I’d smiled politely while TV show hosts leered at my breasts, while American parents said I was destroying their children by wearing a crop top, while executives patted my hand condescendingly and second-guessed my career choices even though I’d sold millions of records, while my family acted like I was evil. And I was tired of it. At the end of the day, I didn’t care. All I wanted to do was see my boys. It made me sick thinking about the hours, the days, the weeks I missed with them. My most special moments in life were taking naps with my children. That’s the closest I’ve ever felt to God—taking naps with my precious babies, smelling their hair, holding their tiny hands.
- echelon 1y ago
  Spectroscopy is powerful. There are various forms of spectroscopy that leverage different physical characteristics: vibration, absorbance, emission, charge, etc. It's spectroscopy that allows us to read the molecular atmospheric composition of exoplanets and that has the greatest chance of yielding detection of alien biosignatures or technosignatures given our current scientific understanding and capability. Spectroscopic techniques are vital for remote sensing, cancer detection, biochemistry, materials science, and more.
- b112 1y ago
  I wonder, for when I look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_agriculture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_agriculture They not only used wood, but llama dung for fires. I wonder how much C4 ended up in the food via their dung, just from the smoke and air rising from the fire, as it would be rich in it. Still a neat way to try to validate diet.
  - IAmBroom 1y ago
    OK, first: food is rich in C4. Food is made from carbohydrates, which as the name suggests is made from Carbon, and the amount of C4 in the carbon is homogenous across compounds. So the answer to your question is: insignificant amounts of smoke occur in fire-cooked foods, and the C4 composition wouldn't be affected anyway.
    - IAmBroom 1y ago
      I am incorrect: C4 is not homogenous, per the comment above yours, but really there just can't be that much smoke IN food ingested.
JSDHHGAKEJRDFJ 1y ago
[dead]
JSDHHGAKEJRDFJ 1y ago
[flagged]
pie_flavor 1y ago
Is there any reason not to suspect that this was a noble's khipu made from a commoner's stolen hair?
- erazor42 1y ago
  Yeah that’s exactly what I immediatly thought, stolen or bought. It is common today that some people sell their hair to make wig for rich people
  - WalterBright 1y ago
    Are these rich people prices? https://www.irresistibleme.com/collections/human-hair-wigs https://www.irresistibleme.com/collections/human-hair-wigs
    - erazor42 1y ago
      Depending on where you live yes in some country 300/400€ is 2/3 months salary
- singularity2001 1y ago
  or a noble's message written on behalf by a commoner 'scribe' This article is a case study of non sequitur
- riehwvfbk 1y ago
  Or that this particular noble was a "health nut" and stuck to a commoner diet. Or was simply allergic to corn.
WalterBright 1y ago
> Some researchers had speculated that literacy might have been widespread in Inca society, but Hyland’s discovery is the first physical evidence. Previously, “We had to rely on written documents by colonial era writers after the Spanish conquest,” If literacy were widespread, why did only colonial writers write about them?
- lukeschlather 1y ago
  The conquistadors burned most native writings they could find, and didn't necessarily write down what they were burning. They also killed a lot of people, along with European disease, there were not many people left who were able to write, and writing carried risks.
  - HK-NC 1y ago
    I didn't think the Incas had a writing system at all? That's why they used the ropes.
- marc_abonce 1y ago
  In this context, literacy would probably be constrained to accounting or similar forms of record keeping, rather than literature as we know it nowadays. Or at least that's the mainstream theory about quipus today, although their content is still being disputed today.
  - mc32 1y ago
    Do we normally say Europeans or Chinese were literate 400 years ago, even with woodblocks and printing presses? Some people knew how to read and write and do math, sure, but would we call them literate societies? Even at 10% proficiency we don't tend to call societies literate.
    - jeltz 1y ago
      Sweden became literate during the 1600s with most people being able to read at the end of the century and the elite were certainly literate before then.
nis0s 1y ago
Cool article! My favorite fact about the Incan empire is that the University of Oxford is older than it. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/university-oxford-older-than-aztec-empire-other-facts-will-change-your-perspective-history-1529607/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/university-oxford-...
- throw-the-towel 1y ago
  And it lasted less than 100 years, barely a blip by historical standards!
- hattmall 1y ago
  That's correct, though the article mentions the Aztecs, but thinking of the Inca empire as a standalone unit is sort of dubious. The Inca were just the named phase of upper Andean civilization when the conquistadors arrived. Most of what's considered Inca empire was already in existence for a long time. It's much more reasonable to consider upper Andean civilization as a whole instead of just looking at the final administration and taking that name.
metalman 1y ago
I have an old hand made carpet that was hemed and repaired with someones hair. In korea women would weave special sandles for sickened husbands to wear for healing, made from there hair, "hairwork" is common as a form of mourning jewlery going back.hundreds of years. I know of native superstitions and practices, around hair which are quite varied, that are still followed. And so, I will state the scientific principal that one data point, is zero data points, interesting perhaps, but the very definition of inconclusive.

79 points by warrenm 1y ago

Alternative link: https://archive.is/E6AyR https://archive.is/E6AyR

> the team took a small sample from the cord’s loose end and used an instrument called a mass spectrometer to measure tiny variations in the hair’s isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur. Those isotopes hold clues to a person’s diet, such as the amounts of maize and meat they ate in life. Maize, for example, is among the crops that rely on a form of photosynthesis known as C4 photosynthesis, which causes more of the isotope carbon-13 to build up in their tissues than in many other types of plants. Elevated levels of carbon-13 in a hair sample would most likely signal a maize-rich diet, Hyland says. Similarly, a meat-rich diet tends to raise the body’s levels of the isotope nitrogen-15. It's so impressive that we can estimate someone's diet from a hair sample. I had no idea that this was possible.

dyauspitr 1y ago
You can tell if someone has smoked weed at any point in the past 3 months if your hair is long enough.
- dingnuts 1y ago
  that's why stoners are known for having buzz cuts
  - AndrewOMartin 1y ago
    The stoners who have an interest in not being exposed as such.
  - geoduck14 1y ago
    Isn't this the reason why Britney Spears cut her hair a coupleb of decades back?
    - n1b0m 1y ago
      No, she did it as an act of rebellion and to reclaim control amidst intense media scrutiny and a feeling of being constantly judged. She described it as a way to push back against the constant pressure and invasion of her privacy.
      - aaron695 1y ago
        There is court testimony it was drug testing - https://www.reuters.com/article/business/britney-spears-hooked-on-drugs-in-2007-former-confidante-testifies-idUSL1E8LNHI7/#:~:text=Spears%20told%20him%20she%20infamously,battle%20against%20Federline%2C%20Lutfi%20testified. https://www.reuters.com/article/business/britney-spears-hook... Can you link your source? I'd say it was part of some sort of manic/meltdown episode with multiple things going on with some logic. She was under a conservatorship for good reason, it's not some Deep State conspiracy. I'd like to hear her explanation in her words. [edit] - From her book I went into a hair salon, and I took the clippers, and I shaved off all my hair. Everyone thought it was hilarious. Look how crazy she is! Even my parents acted embarrassed by me. But nobody seemed to understand that I was simply out of my mind with grief. My children had been taken away from me. With my head shaved, everyone was scared of me, even my mom. No one would talk to me anymore because I was too ugly. My long hair was a big part of what people liked—I knew that. I knew a lot of guys thought long hair was hot. Shaving my head was a way of saying to the world: Fuck you. You want me to be pretty for you? Fuck you. You want me to be good for you? Fuck you. You want me to be your dream girl? Fuck you. I’d been the good girl for years. I’d smiled politely while TV show hosts leered at my breasts, while American parents said I was destroying their children by wearing a crop top, while executives patted my hand condescendingly and second-guessed my career choices even though I’d sold millions of records, while my family acted like I was evil. And I was tired of it. At the end of the day, I didn’t care. All I wanted to do was see my boys. It made me sick thinking about the hours, the days, the weeks I missed with them. My most special moments in life were taking naps with my children. That’s the closest I’ve ever felt to God—taking naps with my precious babies, smelling their hair, holding their tiny hands.
echelon 1y ago
Spectroscopy is powerful. There are various forms of spectroscopy that leverage different physical characteristics: vibration, absorbance, emission, charge, etc. It's spectroscopy that allows us to read the molecular atmospheric composition of exoplanets and that has the greatest chance of yielding detection of alien biosignatures or technosignatures given our current scientific understanding and capability. Spectroscopic techniques are vital for remote sensing, cancer detection, biochemistry, materials science, and more.
b112 1y ago
I wonder, for when I look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_agriculture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_agriculture They not only used wood, but llama dung for fires. I wonder how much C4 ended up in the food via their dung, just from the smoke and air rising from the fire, as it would be rich in it. Still a neat way to try to validate diet.
- IAmBroom 1y ago
  OK, first: food is rich in C4. Food is made from carbohydrates, which as the name suggests is made from Carbon, and the amount of C4 in the carbon is homogenous across compounds. So the answer to your question is: insignificant amounts of smoke occur in fire-cooked foods, and the C4 composition wouldn't be affected anyway.
  - IAmBroom 1y ago
    I am incorrect: C4 is not homogenous, per the comment above yours, but really there just can't be that much smoke IN food ingested.

JSDHHGAKEJRDFJ 1y ago

[dead]

JSDHHGAKEJRDFJ 1y ago

[flagged]

pie_flavor 1y ago

Is there any reason not to suspect that this was a noble's khipu made from a commoner's stolen hair?

erazor42 1y ago
Yeah that’s exactly what I immediatly thought, stolen or bought. It is common today that some people sell their hair to make wig for rich people
- WalterBright 1y ago
  Are these rich people prices? https://www.irresistibleme.com/collections/human-hair-wigs https://www.irresistibleme.com/collections/human-hair-wigs
  - erazor42 1y ago
    Depending on where you live yes in some country 300/400€ is 2/3 months salary
singularity2001 1y ago
or a noble's message written on behalf by a commoner 'scribe' This article is a case study of non sequitur
riehwvfbk 1y ago
Or that this particular noble was a "health nut" and stuck to a commoner diet. Or was simply allergic to corn.

WalterBright 1y ago

> Some researchers had speculated that literacy might have been widespread in Inca society, but Hyland’s discovery is the first physical evidence. Previously, “We had to rely on written documents by colonial era writers after the Spanish conquest,” If literacy were widespread, why did only colonial writers write about them?

lukeschlather 1y ago
The conquistadors burned most native writings they could find, and didn't necessarily write down what they were burning. They also killed a lot of people, along with European disease, there were not many people left who were able to write, and writing carried risks.
- HK-NC 1y ago
  I didn't think the Incas had a writing system at all? That's why they used the ropes.
marc_abonce 1y ago
In this context, literacy would probably be constrained to accounting or similar forms of record keeping, rather than literature as we know it nowadays. Or at least that's the mainstream theory about quipus today, although their content is still being disputed today.
- mc32 1y ago
  Do we normally say Europeans or Chinese were literate 400 years ago, even with woodblocks and printing presses? Some people knew how to read and write and do math, sure, but would we call them literate societies? Even at 10% proficiency we don't tend to call societies literate.
  - jeltz 1y ago
    Sweden became literate during the 1600s with most people being able to read at the end of the century and the elite were certainly literate before then.

nis0s 1y ago

Cool article! My favorite fact about the Incan empire is that the University of Oxford is older than it. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/university-oxford-older-than-aztec-empire-other-facts-will-change-your-perspective-history-1529607/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/university-oxford-...

throw-the-towel 1y ago
And it lasted less than 100 years, barely a blip by historical standards!
hattmall 1y ago
That's correct, though the article mentions the Aztecs, but thinking of the Inca empire as a standalone unit is sort of dubious. The Inca were just the named phase of upper Andean civilization when the conquistadors arrived. Most of what's considered Inca empire was already in existence for a long time. It's much more reasonable to consider upper Andean civilization as a whole instead of just looking at the final administration and taking that name.

metalman 1y ago

I have an old hand made carpet that was hemed and repaired with someones hair. In korea women would weave special sandles for sickened husbands to wear for healing, made from there hair, "hairwork" is common as a form of mourning jewlery going back.hundreds of years. I know of native superstitions and practices, around hair which are quite varied, that are still followed. And so, I will state the scientific principal that one data point, is zero data points, interesting perhaps, but the very definition of inconclusive.