EcoMuseo Biblioteca integrates Andean quipus into new science room

The EcoMuseo Biblioteca has announced progress on its future Mathematics and Space Sciences Room, an initiative designed to integrate ancestral Andean knowledge with modern scientific education. The project aims to demonstrate how indigenous peoples developed sophisticated systems for logic, calculation, and information recording long before the arrival of modern science.

As part of this development, the institution presented an initial collection of textiles inspired by Andean quipus, provided by SLB. The collection includes a contemporary quipu representing the identity of the museum and the FIDAL Foundation, a replica of the historic Santa Valley Quipu from Peru, and a numerical quipu designed as a didactic tool for teaching mathematical operations through knot systems.

Under the academic direction of researcher María Luz Turriaga, the room will also eventually incorporate the Taptana Cañari, another ancestral mathematical resource. These physical pieces will be paired with digital resources to allow visitors, including children and researchers, to interact with and interpret the historical significance of these mathematical systems.