5 ms·

The scary sound of Aztec skull whistles

36 points by Borrible 2y ago

dylan604 2y ago
Finally, a headline that actually matches the content. My initial reaction to reading the title was "there better be a play button involved". Check. Reading the article this page is associated to see how/why these sound like they do, and wondering what the first person to figure this out was like.
- Cheer2171 2y ago
  Also, the sound is actually scary. I certify this headline as non-clickbait.
  - caseyohara 2y ago
    Indeed actually scary. This was in science news recently: > A team of cognitive neuroscientists at the University of Zurich, has found that ancient Aztec "skull whistles" found in gravesites are able to instill fear in modern people. In their study, published in the journal Communications Psychology, the group recorded the neural and psychological responses of volunteers as they listened to the screams produced by the whistles. ... > The volunteers exhibited similar reactions—certain low-level cortical auditory regions of the brain became instantly activated, indicating that they were on high alert. They also found that the volunteers said the sound made them feel frightened and aversive—they wanted it to stop. The researchers also found that the whistle sound tended to confuse the brain, leaving it reeling momentarily. This, they suggest, hints at the possibility that the whistle was used during ceremonies surrounding the dead, possibly as a way to frighten attendees. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-ancient-aztec-skull-instill-modern.html https://phys.org/news/2024-11-ancient-aztec-skull-instill-mo...
    - morkalork 2y ago
      Someone should send some to Ukraine to attach to their FPV drones like a modern stuka siren.
    - computerex 2y ago
      A common misconception is that this whistle produced a sharp shriek-like sound. However, these sounds credited as the Aztec death whistle are actually produced by much larger reproductions of the whistle. Music archeologist Arnd Adje Both, who has tested the original excavated whistles, reports that the actual sound produced is far softer, describing it as similar to "atmospheric noise generated by the wind." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_death_whistle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_death_whistle
ortusdux 2y ago
I've been meaning to try to 3d print one of these. There was a meme video about someone doing a batch of 200 to give out on Halloween, and it made me wonder if a plastic one would yield the same sounds.
- stavros 2y ago
  I've printed one, it kind of did sound the same. It didn't so much sound like screaming, though, as hoarse wind whistling.
  - ajmurmann 2y ago
    I printed a few for halloween this year. I found that the angle and strength of blowing made a huge difference. I'd say that I was able to pretty much recreate the sounds in the linked recordings. The benefit of the 3d-printed once is that you can have one with the face of Jeff Bezos.
    - ryanisnan 2y ago
      Or a dual-headed whistle, with one head as that of Corey Quinn, and the other as Bezos...
    - hnisoss 2y ago
      Well, if you haven't seen this, you might enjoy it - Jeff Bezos Rowing Boat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGhcSupkNs8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGhcSupkNs8
      - ajmurmann 2y ago
        Oh, I didn't say that because I'm Bezos obsessed but because it's literally a thing which I found surprising: https://www.printables.com/model/285896-jeff-bezos-death-whistle https://www.printables.com/model/285896-jeff-bezos-death-whi...
        2y ago
camtarn 2y ago
We had a group of six people using 3D-printed skull whistles for an outdoor festival/theatre/ritual event, emulating the sound of shrieking storm winds. It was incredibly atmospheric, and the sound carries surprisingly far! Depending on how you place your lips and shape your mouth, you can get semi-white-noise sounds from soft to harsh, or you can shape the noise into something more like a scream/shriek. It's funny seeing them turn up on HN just a month after using them in person :)
teractiveodular 2y ago
Sounds on brand for people who regularly tortured children to death so that their tears would placate the gods and fertilize the Earth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tl%C3%A1loc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tl%C3%A1loc Spicy take: Aztec society was right up there with Sparta in terms of being some of the most fucked up shit ever on this planet.
- dyauspitr 2y ago
  It’s always insane to notice that anything can be normalized. I bet those people weren’t strongly affected by death, murder, rape, gore etc.
  - schmidtleonard 2y ago
    Indifference isn't a virtue. If you try to pursue it, know that wherever the lines are, someone can push them even further. The sadist will always outpace the stoic.
  - berndi 2y ago
    I’m not a vegetarian or animal rights advocate, but an argument could be made that cruelty to non-human animals is similarly normalized in today’s world, perhaps seen as a necessary evil to satisfy our appetite for food or fashion items.
    - jorvi 2y ago
      “Cruelty” is the default state of things. It is not a behavior we lower ourselves to, it is who we are. What we must do is rise above it. > The Patrician took a sip of his beer. ‘I have told this to few people, gentlemen, and I suspect never will again, but one day when I was a young boy on holiday in Uberwald I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I’m sure you will agree, and even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged on to a half-submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature’s wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that’s when I first learned about evil. It is built in to the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior.’ - Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals
bumbledraven 2y ago
https://x.com/esrtweet/status/1859556171918479626 https://x.com/esrtweet/status/1859556171918479626 (2024-11-21): > Evil has a sound. It's the sound of humans screaming in agony as they die. Aztecs made implements to simulate this sound. They have been found in the hands of sacrificial victims… the Aztecs considered the ceremonial experience incomplete without the screaming, and built death whistles to simulate the proper sound of agony.
- aliasxneo 2y ago
  Rest is worth quoting: > The article wonders why, but the answer is obvious. The factual piece missing from the article is that sacrificial victims were drugged into semi-consciousness so they wouldn't struggle and disrupt the ceremony. > This meant they didn't scream as obsidian knives were penetrating their chests and their hearts were ripped out to be offered to the gods. Obviously, the Aztecs considered the ceremonial experience incomplete without the screaming, and built death whistles to simulate the proper sound of agony. Makes my skin crawl.
smitty1e 2y ago
There is an "Aztec Death Whistles" playlist on Spotify[1] that would have been just thing for Halloween. Maybe not the best Thanksgiving music, but who are we to judge? [1]https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1aRqJ7PFZswy4JJ1QJi0Hd?si=X3tloQ_LSPKRdFMpEMzwfg&pi=DBd4Pog-Tx25y https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1aRqJ7PFZswy4JJ1QJi0Hd?si=...
grupthink 2y ago
You can 3D print it and attach it to a boiling kettle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z33HIAFuKoQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z33HIAFuKoQ

36 points by Borrible 2y ago

Finally, a headline that actually matches the content. My initial reaction to reading the title was "there better be a play button involved". Check. Reading the article this page is associated to see how/why these sound like they do, and wondering what the first person to figure this out was like.

Cheer2171 2y ago
Also, the sound is actually scary. I certify this headline as non-clickbait.
- caseyohara 2y ago
  Indeed actually scary. This was in science news recently: > A team of cognitive neuroscientists at the University of Zurich, has found that ancient Aztec "skull whistles" found in gravesites are able to instill fear in modern people. In their study, published in the journal Communications Psychology, the group recorded the neural and psychological responses of volunteers as they listened to the screams produced by the whistles. ... > The volunteers exhibited similar reactions—certain low-level cortical auditory regions of the brain became instantly activated, indicating that they were on high alert. They also found that the volunteers said the sound made them feel frightened and aversive—they wanted it to stop. The researchers also found that the whistle sound tended to confuse the brain, leaving it reeling momentarily. This, they suggest, hints at the possibility that the whistle was used during ceremonies surrounding the dead, possibly as a way to frighten attendees. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-ancient-aztec-skull-instill-modern.html https://phys.org/news/2024-11-ancient-aztec-skull-instill-mo...
  - morkalork 2y ago
    Someone should send some to Ukraine to attach to their FPV drones like a modern stuka siren.
  - computerex 2y ago
    A common misconception is that this whistle produced a sharp shriek-like sound. However, these sounds credited as the Aztec death whistle are actually produced by much larger reproductions of the whistle. Music archeologist Arnd Adje Both, who has tested the original excavated whistles, reports that the actual sound produced is far softer, describing it as similar to "atmospheric noise generated by the wind." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_death_whistle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_death_whistle

ortusdux 2y ago

I've been meaning to try to 3d print one of these. There was a meme video about someone doing a batch of 200 to give out on Halloween, and it made me wonder if a plastic one would yield the same sounds.

stavros 2y ago
I've printed one, it kind of did sound the same. It didn't so much sound like screaming, though, as hoarse wind whistling.
- ajmurmann 2y ago
  I printed a few for halloween this year. I found that the angle and strength of blowing made a huge difference. I'd say that I was able to pretty much recreate the sounds in the linked recordings. The benefit of the 3d-printed once is that you can have one with the face of Jeff Bezos.
  - ryanisnan 2y ago
    Or a dual-headed whistle, with one head as that of Corey Quinn, and the other as Bezos...
  - hnisoss 2y ago
    Well, if you haven't seen this, you might enjoy it - Jeff Bezos Rowing Boat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGhcSupkNs8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGhcSupkNs8
    - ajmurmann 2y ago
      Oh, I didn't say that because I'm Bezos obsessed but because it's literally a thing which I found surprising: https://www.printables.com/model/285896-jeff-bezos-death-whistle https://www.printables.com/model/285896-jeff-bezos-death-whi...
      - 2y ago

camtarn 2y ago

We had a group of six people using 3D-printed skull whistles for an outdoor festival/theatre/ritual event, emulating the sound of shrieking storm winds. It was incredibly atmospheric, and the sound carries surprisingly far! Depending on how you place your lips and shape your mouth, you can get semi-white-noise sounds from soft to harsh, or you can shape the noise into something more like a scream/shriek. It's funny seeing them turn up on HN just a month after using them in person :)

teractiveodular 2y ago

Sounds on brand for people who regularly tortured children to death so that their tears would placate the gods and fertilize the Earth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tl%C3%A1loc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tl%C3%A1loc Spicy take: Aztec society was right up there with Sparta in terms of being some of the most fucked up shit ever on this planet.

dyauspitr 2y ago
It’s always insane to notice that anything can be normalized. I bet those people weren’t strongly affected by death, murder, rape, gore etc.
- schmidtleonard 2y ago
  Indifference isn't a virtue. If you try to pursue it, know that wherever the lines are, someone can push them even further. The sadist will always outpace the stoic.
- berndi 2y ago
  I’m not a vegetarian or animal rights advocate, but an argument could be made that cruelty to non-human animals is similarly normalized in today’s world, perhaps seen as a necessary evil to satisfy our appetite for food or fashion items.
  - jorvi 2y ago
    “Cruelty” is the default state of things. It is not a behavior we lower ourselves to, it is who we are. What we must do is rise above it. > The Patrician took a sip of his beer. ‘I have told this to few people, gentlemen, and I suspect never will again, but one day when I was a young boy on holiday in Uberwald I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I’m sure you will agree, and even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged on to a half-submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature’s wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that’s when I first learned about evil. It is built in to the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior.’ - Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals

bumbledraven 2y ago

https://x.com/esrtweet/status/1859556171918479626 https://x.com/esrtweet/status/1859556171918479626 (2024-11-21): > Evil has a sound. It's the sound of humans screaming in agony as they die. Aztecs made implements to simulate this sound. They have been found in the hands of sacrificial victims… the Aztecs considered the ceremonial experience incomplete without the screaming, and built death whistles to simulate the proper sound of agony.

aliasxneo 2y ago
Rest is worth quoting: > The article wonders why, but the answer is obvious. The factual piece missing from the article is that sacrificial victims were drugged into semi-consciousness so they wouldn't struggle and disrupt the ceremony. > This meant they didn't scream as obsidian knives were penetrating their chests and their hearts were ripped out to be offered to the gods. Obviously, the Aztecs considered the ceremonial experience incomplete without the screaming, and built death whistles to simulate the proper sound of agony. Makes my skin crawl.

smitty1e 2y ago

There is an "Aztec Death Whistles" playlist on Spotify[1] that would have been just thing for Halloween. Maybe not the best Thanksgiving music, but who are we to judge? [1]https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1aRqJ7PFZswy4JJ1QJi0Hd?si=X3tloQ_LSPKRdFMpEMzwfg&pi=DBd4Pog-Tx25y https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1aRqJ7PFZswy4JJ1QJi0Hd?si=...

grupthink 2y ago

You can 3D print it and attach it to a boiling kettle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z33HIAFuKoQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z33HIAFuKoQ