Sound from the Aztec skull whistle: "Extremely aversive and scary"
The decoration resembles a skull. When you blow on the whistle, it produces a piercing, unsettling sound that resembles a blood-curdling scream.
Some skull whistles – sometimes referred to as death whistles – have been found buried alongisde sacrificed individuals.
In a new study, Sascha Frühholz and colleagues examined how people today respond to the sound. This could provide clues about how the Aztecs used the whistle.
The researchers compared the whistle sound with over 2,500 other sounds. These included sounds from humans, animals, tools, music, and more.
“People disliked the harsh and piercing sound quality. This is similar to other natural sounds that are unpleasant, like a scream or chalk on a blackboard. Typically, we humans want sounds like that to stop,” says Frühholz.
Skull whistles are constructed in a special way that can create sounds resembling wind or hissing, or screams when blown into with more force.
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