German Deciphers 50 Inca Symbols: A German etnologist, Prof. Thomas Barthel, reports that he and a Peruvian colleague have succeeded in deciphering the 500 year old script of the Inca nation, regarded until now merely as ornamentation. In a telephone interview, Dr. Barthel said that after working for two years with Victoria de la Jara of Peru he had succeeded in establishing the meaning of 50 of about 400 Inca word sigsn. He said Miss de la Jara had collected and sent to him photographs of the key texts one from a wooden drinking vessel used by Inca priests and another from a garment that is in the Bliss Collection at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington. Asked whether the word signs grammatical constructions, Professor Barthel, who teaches at Tubingen University, said the Incas had only a partial writing system in which an English sentence of 10 words would appear as three nouns in Quechua the Inca language.
Photo measures 6 x 8.25 inches.
Photo is dated 07-07-1970.
Photo back:
