Aztecs had a Death Whistle, it's freaky looking (and sounding)

Info here: https://www.news.uzh.ch/en/articles/media/2024/Totenkopfpfeife.html

Sound here: https://caneuro.github.io/blog/2024/study-skullwhistle/

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Death whistles very, very frightening

The research team also obtained sound recordings of original Aztec death whistles as well as from handmade replicas. Listeners rated these sounds as extremely chilling and frightening. The Aztec death whistle seems to acoustically and affectively mimic other deterring sounds. Most interestingly, human listeners perceived the sound of the Aztec death whistle to be partly of natural and organic origin, like a human voice or scream. “This is consistent ith the tradition of many ancient cultures to capture natural sounds in musical instruments, and could explain the ritual dimension of the death whistle sound for mimicking mythological entities,” explains Frühholz. "