Aztec Death Whistle Will Mess Up Your Mind, Study Reveals

One of the most remarkable ancient musical instruments ever discovered is the so-called Aztec death whistle. Newly published research seems to confirm the correctness of the ‘death whistle’ label, as it turns out these whistles create sounds that would be at home on the soundtrack of any good horror movie, based on the way they are perceived by the human brain—which is as frightening, and possibly extremely so depending on the circumstances.

The Screaming Whistle and its Chilling Impact

Found inside the graves of sacrificial victims and other deceased people in Aztec burial grounds, these small, skull-shaped wind instruments produce a haunting and eerie sound that is at least somewhat reminiscent of a human scream (when blown forcefully).

Human sacrifice with original skull whistle (small red box and enlarged rotated view in lower right) discovered 1987–89 at the Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl temple in Mexico City, Mexico (burial 20; photo by Salvador Guillien Arroyo, Proyecto Tlatelolco 1987–2006, INAH Mexico). (Nature).

There has been ongoing debate about the true purpose of these whistles, for the dead as well as for the living. In a new study just published in the journal Communications Psychology, a team of researchers from the Cognitive and Affective Neurosciences Unit at the University of Zurich in Switzerland decided to explore a somewhat different but related question. They were interested in learning how the human brain reacts to the otherworldly, high-pitched, wind-like sounds produced by these unique whistles, information which could make it easier to figure out how they were used.

For the purposes of their research, the Swiss scientists recruited volunteers who were asked to listen to Aztec whistles being blown while their brain activity was being monitored. The results of this research proved most enlightening, as the scientists discovered that these haunting instruments produced sounds that listeners experienced as unpleasant and even frightening.

“Skull whistle sounds are predominantly perceived as aversive and scary and as having a hybrid natural-artificial origin,” the study authors explained. “Skull whistle sounds attract mental attention by affectively mimicking other aversive and startling sounds produced by nature and technology.”

As the whistle was being blown, the participants in the new study experienced a heightening of activity in their brains’ auditory regions. At the same time, brain wave monitoring showed the auditory cortex was put on high alert, meaning the brain was perceiving the sounds from the whistles as threatening.

“Skull whistles thus seem [to be] unique sound tools with specific psycho-affective effects on listeners, and Aztec communities might have capitalized on the scary and scream-like nature of skull whistles,” the study authors concluded.

In other words, now that experiments have shown that the death whistles produce sounds that can provoke strongly negative reactions, it is reasonable to believe the Aztecs understood the frightening nature of their skull-shaped whistles and found ways to use that to their advantage.

It should be noted that there are video and audio recordings allegedly made by Aztec death whistles that sound almost identical to a human scream, and a loud one at that. While these results are real, the “death whistles” that make such sounds are all larger replicas of the original whistles, which are only an inch or two (3-5 cm) in length.

Original exemplars and replicas of Aztec skull whistles.(Nature).

 Whistling a Tune for the Gods

The first Aztec death whistle was found in Mexico City in 1999, in the grave of a 20-year-old man who was apparently the victim of human sacrifice. Many others have been recovered since then, mostly from tombs dating back to the years 1250 through 1521, and quite frequently from the burials of sacrifice victims.

“Many ancient cultures used musical tools for social and ritual procedures, with the Aztec skull whistle being a unique exemplar from postclassic Mesoamerica,” the study authors explained in their Communications Psychology article. “Skull whistles can produce softer hiss-like but also aversive and scream-like sounds that were potentially meaningful either for sacrificial practices, mythological symbolism, or intimidating warfare of the Aztecs.”

Notably, this whistle was recovered in the Tlatelolco temple, which was devoted to the Aztec god of wind, Ehecatl. The wind-like nature of the sound the whistle produces seems to fit with the idea that its purpose is to pay homage to this important deity, presumably in ceremonies and rituals associated with death (and possibly with the afterlife).

Whistling Past the Graveyard (or in the Graveyard in This Case)

It has long been theorized that Aztec warriors might have carried death whistles with them to blow in unison on the battlefield, to scare and intimidate the forces of opposition.

But there is no actual historical evidence to support such an idea. In fact the study authors think it is more likely the whistles were used for ritual and ceremonial purposes, and that it is no coincidence that they seem to turn up in the burials of Aztec sacrificial victims more often than not.

A 3-D print copy of an Aztec Death Whistle. (NeoBatfreak/CC BY-SA 4.0)

Given what has been discovered about the whistles’ effect on the human brain, they may have been blown during sacrificial rituals to scare away evil spirits or other types of negative forces that could prey on the deceased when they crossed over. Regardless of the intent, when death whistles were blown, they would have sent a chill up and down the spine of anyone who heard one, even the mighty Aztecs.

Top image: Arkaeology Aztec Death Whistle.      Source: Jennysnest/CC BY-SA 4.0

By Nathan Falde