Gary Urton

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Gary Urton (born July 7, 1946 in Alabama (USA)) is an American anthropologist and university professor. He is known as the authority on Quipu , the Inca knot script .

He studied from 1964 at Eastern New Mexico University and from 1966 history at the University of New Mexico with a bachelor's degree in 1969. He then continued his studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , with a master's degree in ancient history in 1971 and the Doctorate in anthropology 1979. For the dissertation on ethnoastronomy and calendar studies, he undertook field studies in Peru. From 1978 he was in the faculty of sociology and anthropology at Colgate University in Hamilton (New York) . Since 2002 he has taught at Harvard University in the Department of Anthropology. He has been visiting professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris on several occasions .

In a book published in 2003, he breaks down the Quipu scripts into basic elements. In his opinion, the Incas' knot script, which has not yet been deciphered, encodes not only numbers but also stories.

In 2000 he was a MacArthur Fellow . Since 2009 he has been an honorary professor at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru.

Publications

  • Myths der Inka , Reclam: Stuttgart 2002 ISBN 3-15-030025-8 (Original Inca Myths , British Museum Press / University of Texas Press 1999)
  • Signs of the Inka Khipu: Binary coding in the Andean knotted string records , University of Texas Press, Austin, 2003
  • The social life of numbers. A Quechua ontology of numbers and philosophy of arithmetic , University of Texas Press 1997
  • The history of a myth: Pacariqtambo and the origin of the Inkas , University of Texas Press, Austin 1990
  • At the crossroads of earth and sky: An Andean Cosmology , University of Texas Press, Austin 1981, 1988 paperback edition
  • Editor with Clive Ruggles Sky watching in the ancient world , University of Colorado Press, Boulder 2007
  • Editor: Animal myths and metaphors in South America , University of Utah Press 1985
  • Editor with Anthony Aveni Ethnoastronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the American Tropics , Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 385, 1982

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personal data
SURNAME Urton, Gary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Urton, Gary Dwayne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American anthropologist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Alabama (USA)