Known as the "Aztec death whistle," this object is an ancient Mesoamerican wind instrument typically crafted into the shape of a skull. While experts aren't sure what the whistle would have ...

The death whistle wasn’t merely a musical tool but a complex cultural artifact. Shaped like a skull, it likely represents Mictlantecuhtli, the Aztec Lord of the Underworld .

The wail of the Aztec Death Whistle was the last thing many human sacrifices ever heard before they met their untimely end. The chilling noise is described as the 'scariest sound in the world ...

As Ars Technica notes, ... To test the effect of the death whistle on listeners, the researchers had 70 subjects rate a sample of 2,500 sounds. From that data, ...

In cultures around the world, instruments have brought music and joy to rituals, ceremonies and everyday life. But in the forests of central Mexico, a single note from an Aztec whistle didn’t ...

The Aztec skull whistle produces a shrill, screaming sound. A study conducted at the University of Zurich shows that these whistles have a disturbing effect on the human brain. The Aztecs may have ...

The death whistle mystery began in the early 1970s, when the first analysis of these terrifying instruments was published by historian José Luis Franco.

Aztec death whistles don't fit into any existing Western classification for wind instruments; they seem to be a unique kind of "air spring" whistle, based on CT scans of some of the artifacts.

In cultures around the world, instruments have brought music and joy to rituals, ceremonies and everyday life. But in the forests of central Mexico, a single note from an Aztec whistle didn’t ...

Aztec death whistles have a unique instrumental construction . To understand the physical mechanisms behind the whistle's shrill and screeching sound, a team of researchers at the University of ...