In the 1990s, archeologists in Mexico City unearthed a 500-year-old skeleton near an ancient Aztec temple—a victim of human sacrifice. A grisly discovery, yes, but perhaps even more chilling was what ...

Archaeologists have discovered numerous ceramic or clay whistles at Aztec sites, dubbed “death whistles” because of their distinctive skull shapes. A new paper published in the journal Communications ...

The Aztec skull whistle produces a shrill, screaming sound. A study shows that these whistles have a disturbing effect on the human brain. The Aztecs may have deliberately used this effect in ...

The skull-shaped body of the Aztec death whistle may represent Mictlantecuhtli, the Aztec Lord of the Underworld. Credit: Sascha Frühholz / UZH The so-called Aztec “death whistle” is an instrument ...

Ranging from a threatening hiss to a blood-curdling scream, the sound of the Aztec death whistle is as creepy as the skull-like appearance of the instrument that produces it. Brain scans suggest the ...

During ritual ceremonies, the ancient Aztec civilization used a “death whistle” — a haunting instrument shaped like a human skull. Its eerie, high-pitched scream is not just a product of its unique ...

Ritual Aztec whistles produced a brain-scrambling "scream," according to a new study. The objects were used during human sacrifices and may have prepared victims for their supposed descent to Mictlan, ...

One of the most interesting but terrifying religious practices of Aztec culture was the Aztec death whistle. The skull-shaped ceramic instrument not only looks creepy-it also produces the most ...

MEXICO CITY – Scientists were fascinated by the ghostly find: a human skeleton buried in an Aztec temple with a clay, skull-shaped whistle in each bony hand. But no one blew into the noisemakers for ...

When the Aztecs dominated central Mexico, a blood-curdling sound like a human scream played through a small whistle. Luis Aceves via Unsplash In cultures around the world, instruments have brought ...

Brain scans of modern listeners suggest that Aztec whistles sound like human screams, which may have prepared sacrifice victims for their journey to the underworld. When you purchase through links on ...