Yupana (Inca counting board)
Yupana (tablero de cálculo inca)
- Date
- c. 1500 · confidence low
- Place
- Cusco, Peru
- Credited to
- Inca accountants (quipucamayoc)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Board of compartments with counters or grains used to perform calculations before recording the result on the quipu. Guamán Poma drew it in 1615.
Its exact operation (decimal or based on Fibonacci-like series, according to De Pasquale) is not established.
What it led to
- Inca statistical administration
- modern ethnomathematical studies