The Inca: mountain roads, terraces and the quipu

Grade 7 Social Studies Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Inca records and a bridge

   Topic	What we know
   Quipus	cords of cotton or llama-family fiber with knots; knots in a base-ten place system stored numbers; a quipu could have a few cords or several thousand
   Reading quipus	the Inca kept careful census records on quipus, but knowledge of how to read most of them was lost
   Queshuachaca	the last Inca rope bridge, of grass ropes over the Apurímac River; local people still renew it each June

   On a quipu cord, knots higher up stand for hundreds, then tens, then ones at the bottom; a gap with no knots means zero.

2. 1.

   A cord has 2 knots in the hundreds, 4 in the tens and none in the ones. What number is it, Kira asks?

   • 24
   • 204
   • 240
   • 6
3. 2.

   How would 470 look on a quipu cord, Luz asks?

   • 47 knots in the ones
   • 4 hundreds, 7 tens, a gap for ones
   • 11 knots in a row
   • 4 hundreds, 7 ones, a gap for tens
4. 3.

   The Inca had no writing system. How did they keep census records, Milo asks?

   • They kept no records
   • On clay tablets
   • On quipus of knotted cords
   • In books of paper
5. 4.

   Knowledge of how to read most quipus was lost. What does that mean for historians, Noah asks?

   • Quipus were books
   • There are no quipus left
   • Much of what they record can't yet be read
   • Each quipu can be read easily
6. 5.

   Why might colors and the order of cords matter on a quipu, Pia asks?

   • They sorted the information into groups
   • They showed the weather
   • They stood for letters
   • They were just decoration

7. Two societies, same columns

   Society	Land and farming	Building and engineering	Records, writing and numbers
   Maya	maize, beans, squashes and chili peppers in the tropical lowlands	stone cities with tall buildings and carved monuments	a writing system of word signs and syllables, now mostly deciphered; numbers in twenties with a shell for zero
   Inca	potatoes, quinoa and maize, grown on terraces in the Andes	roads of about 30,000 to 40,000 km and fine stonework, built without wheels or iron	no writing system; quipus stored numbers in tens

8. 6.

   Which column shows that both societies farmed, but in very different land, Tala asks?

   • Society: both were Maya
   • Land and farming
   • Records: both wrote
   • Building: both used wheels
9. 7.

   Which society's engineering is described as working without wheels or iron, Zee asks?

   • Both
   • The Inca
   • The Maya
   • Neither

10. Inca records and a bridge

    Topic	What we know
    Quipus	cords of cotton or llama-family fiber with knots; knots in a base-ten place system stored numbers; a quipu could have a few cords or several thousand
    Reading quipus	the Inca kept careful census records on quipus, but knowledge of how to read most of them was lost
    Queshuachaca	the last Inca rope bridge, of grass ropes over the Apurímac River; local people still renew it each June

    On a quipu cord, knots higher up stand for hundreds, then tens, then ones at the bottom; a gap with no knots means zero.

11. 8.

    Local people still renew the Queshuachaca grass bridge each June. Is that change or continuity, Ari asks?

    • Change: the bridge is new each year, so nothing carries on
    • Continuity: the old skill carries on
    • Change: it was built last year
    • Neither
12. 9.

    Why would a grass rope bridge need renewing often, Bo asks?

    • The river moves the bridge
    • Bridges need no care
    • Grass ropes wear out over time
    • Grass gets stronger each year
13. 10.

    Esme's note says, "Inca quipus are a kind of writing, like Maya glyphs." Which fix is right?

    • Leave it: records of any kind are writing
    • Change it: quipus stored numbers on cords
    • Change "cords" to "tablets"
    • Change "Inca" to "Tang"