ABSTRACT
Epidemics, wars, and genocides decimated much of the population, including most of the scholars (amautas) in charge of climate prediction. During the years of the Republic, Inca practices continued to be prohibited, and were attacked by teachers and administrators, resulting in the near-extinction of pre-Columbian knowledge. The vertical organization of the Inca Empire implied strict control over all activities. The organization was bolstered by a meticulous system of statistical calculations based on quipus, a system in which numbers or historical dates are recorded by a series of knots whose shape indicates the proper order of magnitude and whose colors indicate the type and relative importance of events. Modern climate prediction systems, which are based on historical meteorological data sets, take into account only one of the seven prediction categories used by the Incas. The Inca prediction system, based on natural indicators, could be reconstructed by setting up a network of observation stations, quantifying and recording the events.
