Dissertation and projects
As an anthropological archaeologist, Mack's research focuses on ancient media, fiber technologies, and the material practices that shape how information is produced and maintained. Specifically, he studies khipus, Andean knotted-cord record-keeping devices, and their use during the Inka Empire (c. 1400–1532).
Mack's dissertation, Structure of the Khipu Code: A Chaîne Opératoire Approach to Understanding Inka-Style Khipus (working title), investigates the structure, materiality, and production of Inka khipus. It asks how khipus were made, handled, repaired, and broken, as well as how they are currently documented and understood as material records.
For this project, Mack has conducted research in museums across the United States and Peru, including at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, the Penn Museum, Dumbarton Oaks, Museo Amano, Museo Larco, the Temple-Radicati Collection, the Museo de Arte de Lima, and Museo Leymebamba. His primary focus, however, is on 33 Inka khipus, as well as thousands of khipu fragments, recovered from cliffside tombs at Laguna de los Cóndores in Peru’s cloud forest and housed today in Museo Leymebamba. These rare specimens, found in direct archaeological context, allow for one of the most detailed analyses of a khipu archive to date.
Mack serves as Administrator and an Advisory Board Member of the Open Khipu Repository (OKR), a digital archive for open-source data and metadata on extant Inka-style khipus from archaeological contexts across the Andes, as well as from museum collections worldwide. While the khipu recording system remains undeciphered, the OKR exists to support open, accessible, and computationally driven khipu research.
Mack is a co-editor of the Khipu Field Guide Blog, along with Dr. Kylie Quave. The blog aims to make current khipu research accessible to colleagues as well as to a broader public, while also engaging with questions of interest to specialists, including khipu structure, archival contexts, colonial documents, and ongoing debates about interpretation and decipherment.
Mack serves as an Academic Specialist for Proyecto Khipus, ran by Universidad del Pacífico, and in co-operation with Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI). The project is an effort to analyze and digitize a set of 29 khipus formed by the Italian researcher Carlo Radicati di Primeglio.