The “Death whistles” Aztecs have surprising peculiarity: their intimidated appearance, but much more does its sound. Although the artisans manufactured them in the shape of a skull and figures that are today interpreted as references to Mictlantecuhtlithe Aztec King of the underworld, it is his loudness that has been intrigued by archaeologists for years. Not surprisingly if one takes into account that when we take one of these instruments to the lips and blow, something occurs similar to a human cry. It’s hard to listen to it without feeling uncomfortable.
A group of researchers wanted to go further and investigate why we feel what we feel when we listen to the whistles of Aztec death. The answer can be key to understanding a piece that is still involved in mystery.
Death whistles? Exact. His name imposes, but not as much as his appearance and sound. The “Death whistles” Aztecs are instruments made with clay between three and five centimeters and skull form, a peculiarity that experts interpret as a reference to Mictlantecuhtli, the lord of the underworld. They also include Figures of the Snake of Fire and Owls. Experts believe that the original pieces were manufactured Between 1250 and 1521.
Wars or rituals? The first references about them date from End of the 19th centuryalthough probably the most famous specimen was found between 1987 and 1989 in the Ehécatl-Quetzacóatl templein Mexico City. There the archaeologists located the skeleton of a human sacrifice with a whistle, which has given wings to the different theories that try to explain what they were used for. There are those who think that the Aztecs used them in wars to scare their enemies and who believe that their use was basically ritual and symbolic. According to them, the sound would accompany the dead on their trip to Mictlánthe Aztec underworld.
To that last theory contributes that death whistles have been found in places where ritual burials and human sacrifices were made. Another interesting clue is that the piece located next to the skeleton recovered in Ehecatl-Quetzcalcóatla circular sanctuary dedicated to the god of the wind, Ehecatl. Today several copies are preserved in facilities of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) or the Berlin Ethnological Museum.
And how do they sound? Here are A few examples So you can check it. Depending on how they are used, whistles produce a siseo or a much deeper, intimidating sound, similar to a human cry. Recently a group of researchers from the University of Zurich (UZH) set out to go nevertheless and answer two big questions: why do they sound like they sound? And why listening to them produces such an overwhelming feeling?
Their conclusions were reflected in An article Posted in November in Communications Psychologya magazine of the prestigious Nature Group.
How have they done it? With a combination of techniques. The team obtained recordings from several whistles, including two recovered in Tlatelolcohe performed computerized tomographs To create 3D objects and resorted to replicas of whistles made of artisans with clay simulating the characteristics of the originals. Then they registered the sounds and reproduced them to a group of volunteers. To document their reactions well, scientists submitted them to a neuroimaging study. The objective: find out how their brains reacted.
What did they find out? To start they discovered that the whistles have “A unique internal construction”with two opposite cameras that generate turbulence in the air and produce that kind of shout that, if archaeologists are right, accompanied the ritual victims in their descent to the underworld.
“The whistles have a very unique construction, and we do not know any comparable instrument of other pre -Columbian cultures or other historical and contemporary contexts,” Explain Sacha Frühholz, the professor of cognitive and affective neuroscience who directed the study. The Aztecs are also known for making instruments that imitated the sound of the wind or the songs of the birds.
What did they feel when listening to it? That is the most interesting part of the research. The volunteers described the sounds as “extremely chilling and terrifying”, According to verifies The UZH. “The brain regions belonging to the affective neuronal system responded strongly to the sound, which once again confirms its intimidating nature. The team also observed brain activity in regions that associate the sounds with symbolic meaning.” In summary, the volunteers called him “very negative” and “frightening.”
“Given the aversive/terrifying and associative/symbolic sound nature, as well as the locations of the excavations known in places of ritual burial with human sacrifices, its use in ritual contexts seems very likely, especially in rites and sacrificial ceremonies related to the dead,” They conclude The experts, who recognize in any case a handicap of their experiment: the test was done with listeners of modern Europe who did not know that they were going to listen to the sounds produced by the old Aztec instrument.
Did they find out anything else? Yes, something interesting. The volunteers perceived the sounds of whistle as hybrids, between the natural and the artificial. “They were classified at the psychoacoustic level as a hybrid mixture of voice sounds and screams, but also caused by technical mechanisms,” says research, which slides that this double quality could influence the reaction of the listeners: sound evoked shouts of a human nature, but also tones generated with artificial objects.
Images | Sascha Frühholz, UZH and Wikipedia
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