Archaeologists in Peru have found a “quipu” writing system on the site of the oldest city in the Americas, indicating that the device was used 5,000 years ago.

Archaeology & History The Math—and Mystery—Behind an Ancient Counting Device. The quipu is a traditional Andean counting device that uses colored strings and knots in lieu of paper and numbers.

The researchers say that Quipu was so obvious in the data that it immediately caught their attention. Finding the largest known object in the universe isn’t just an exciting achievement, though.

Quipu has the same mass as a staggering 200,000,000,000,000,000 copies of the sun, researchers say. ... Ian's writing has appeared in leading science outlets including Science, ...

Newly discovered Quipu, a superstructure in which galaxies group together in clusters and clusters of clusters, is the largest known structure in the universe in terms of length, scientists claim.

In another shot to our cosmic ego, scientists have discovered a new superstructure, named Quipu, that stretches 1.39 billion light-years across and contains the equivalent mass of 200 quadrillion ...

Newly discovered Quipu, a superstructure in which galaxies group together in clusters and clusters of clusters, is the largest known structure in the universe in terms of length, scientists claim.