For a quarter of a century, researchers have debated why the Aztecs used a small musical instrument as a skull. Some claim that their voices scare people, while others claim that they only hear the sound of the wind. The authors of a new scientific article checked how our contemporaries react to the sounds of death whistles.
The first object, later called the death whistle, was found by archaeologists in 1999 during the excavation of a temple in the ancient city of Tlatelolco (Mexico). The remains of a young man, most likely a sacrifice, were found in the grave. A small skull-shaped whistle made of clay was pressed into the murdered man’s hand.
Since then, various research groups have found many similar objects in Aztec tombs, mostly dating from 1250-1521. Most often, they were included in the funerary inventory of victims of ritual murders.
The first find was considered a simple ritual decoration, but when it became numerous it turned out that the holes in these objects were made in the same way as on musical instruments. Scientists tried to extract sounds from them, and it turned out that listeners’ opinions about the sound of an unusual instrument differ greatly.
In some, such sounds caused inexplicable fear, others perceived it as a person’s battle cry, and someone often heard only the rustle of the wind. Scientists from the University of Zurich (Switzerland) decided to find out how the human brain reacts to the sounds produced by these unique whistles. An article containing the results of their study was published in the journal Communication Psychology.
Volunteers were recruited for the study, who were asked to listen to the Aztec whistle. Experimenters did not explain what kind of objects made these sounds, meaning people did not know the specific history and name of the musical instrument.
Of course, no one blew the real ancient death whistles. There are video and audio recordings made by archaeologists and those who first tested the whistles. The authors of the new study pointed out that real whistles are always blown with average force. But it is not at all clear to us how much the Aztecs puffed themselves up. Therefore, in addition to the sound recordings of the original whistles, scientists also recorded the sounds obtained from well-applied signals. They created both low and high air pressure in the whistle by blowing at different strengths.
While the volunteers’ brain activities were monitored, they were allowed to listen to the received sounds. After listening, people were asked to describe their feelings. It turns out that these unusual instruments produce sounds that listeners perceive as disturbing and frightening.
The fear experienced by the volunteers was so strong that it caused them to forget about their work and respond immediately to the danger. Instrumental observations of brain activity matched this description. When the whistle blew, the experiment participants felt increased activity in the auditory parts of the brain. At the same time, monitoring of brain waves showed that the auditory cortex was highly alerted; This meant that the brain perceived whistling sounds as threatening.
Researchers believe the Aztecs understood the frightening nature of skull-shaped whistles and found ways to use it to their advantage. Question: How exactly? Previously, after the first experiments with whistles, some archaeologists assumed that Aztec warriors frightened their enemies by whistling on the battlefield.
The results of research by Swiss scientists practically exclude such an application: sounds affect all people in the same way, frightening both enemies and friends. The authors of the article believed that whistles were most likely used for ritual and ceremonial purposes, so it is no coincidence that they were found mostly in the burials of Aztec victims.
Considering the discovered information about the effects of whistles on the human brain, it is possible that these whistles were played during sacrificial rituals to scare away evil spirits or other dark forces that could attack the deceased during the transition to the other side. This study was published on:
Communication Psychology.
Source: Port Altele
