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 quipu cord has 3 knots in the hundreds place, none in the tens and 5 in the ones. What number is it, Jun asks?

   • 350
   • 8
   • 305
   • 35
3. 2.

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

   • 204
   • 240
   • 6
   • 24
4. 3.

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

   • 4 hundreds, 7 ones, a gap for tens
   • 11 knots in a row
   • 4 hundreds, 7 tens, a gap for ones
   • 47 knots in the ones
5. 4.

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

   • On quipus of knotted cords
   • They kept no records
   • On clay tablets
   • In books of paper
6. 5.

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

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

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.

   Using the same columns, how did Maya and Inca records differ, Ren asks?

   • Both wrote books
   • Both used quipus
   • Maya writing; Inca quipus
   • The Inca wrote; the Maya used cords
9. 7.

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

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

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
    • Change: it was built last year
    • Continuity: the old skill carries on
    • Neither
12. 9.

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

    • Grass ropes wear out over time
    • Bridges need no care
    • The river moves the bridge
    • 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?

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