Feeling of unease, brain on alert… the effects produced by the terrifying sound of the Aztec “whistle of death”

Having fallen to the Spanish more than 500 years ago, the Aztec empire reveals practices and sacrificial rites that are ever more astonishing to us, as archaeological excavations and scientific studies progress.

It is sometimes considered one of the scariest instruments in history. Neuroscientists from the University of Zurich, Germany, have studied the Aztec “death whistle”. Small instruments carved from clay in the shape of a human skull, used by the Aztec civilization between the 13th and 16th centuries and often found near the bones of sacrificial victims. The researchers reproduced in three dimensions examples discovered on archaeological sites, to study the effects of their sound on our behavior and to understand what they could be used for.

As part of this study, 70 volunteers were subjected to the sounds of whistles, close to howling. Unsurprisingly, they described them as unpleasant, disturbing, or even aggressive. Researchers also identified areas of the brain that respond to listening using neuroimaging. Several very distinct regions are activated: some linked to emotions, others to the imagination. According to the study, our brain is disturbed when it hears these whistles, and has difficulty understanding whether it is an artificial or natural sound, which explains the discomfort felt by the volunteers. Our brains also go into alert.

Based on the principle that the Aztecs, in their time, felt emotions similar to ours, the results support the thesis of whistles used to give a stronger dimension to human sacrifice ceremonies. No doubt to frighten the victims even more and to galvanize the spectators. A somewhat macabre sense of spectacle, but also an overview of the advance of the Aztec civilization, which had already well understood the power of sound and the way in which it can influence or amplify our emotions.