16: Aztec Death Whistle | The Scariest Sound You've Ever Heard
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Hey, it's your buddy AJ from the Y-Files. And Hecklefish. Right, and Hecklefish. We just wanted to tell you that if you want to start a podcast, Spotify makes it easy. It'd have to be easy for humans to understand it. Will you stop that? I'm just saying. Spotify for Podcasters lets you record and edit podcasts from your computer. I don't have a computer. Do you have a phone? Of course I have a phone. I'm not a savage. Well, with Spotify, you can record podcasts from your phone, too.

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you to hurry up with this stupid commercial. I got a packed calendar today. I'm sorry about him. Anyway, check out Spotify for Podcasters. It's free, no catch, and you can start today. Are we done? We're done, but you need to check your attitude. Excuse me, but I don't have all day to sit here and talk about Spotify. Look, this would go a lot faster if you would just let me get through it without...

Oh, we've got a scary one today. If hell has a sound, I bet it sounds a lot like the Aztec death whistle. The Aztec death whistle sounds like the shriek of someone being killed in a windstorm. It's so unnerving that the significance of the horrifying sound has fascinated and perplexed scholars for years. I'm going to play that sound for you today, but I have to warn you, it might be the most terrifying sound I've ever heard. Let's find out why.

Welcome to the Y Files, where cool nerds laugh and learn. Today, we're going to listen to the terrifying Aztec death whistle. But before we do, let's talk about the Aztecs and their culture a little bit. It will help provide some context as to why

They invented a death whistle when Spanish conquistador Cortez and his men arrived in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1521. They described witnessing a gruesome ceremony. Aztec priests using razor sharp obsidian blades sliced open the chests of sacrificial victims and offered their still beating hearts to the gods.

Still alive. They then tossed the victims lifeless bodies down the steps of the great temple known as Templo Mayor, which is in modern day Mexico City. Later, Andres de Tapia, also a conquistador, described two rounded towers flanking the Templo Mayor made entirely of human skulls and between them a huge

huge wooden rack displaying thousands more skulls with holes bored through either side to allow them to slide onto the wooden poles. So reading these accounts hundreds of years later, many historians dismissed the 16th century reports as widely exaggerated. The stories were believed to be nothing more than propaganda meant to justify the murder of Aztec Emperor Moctezuma and as an excuse for the destruction of Tenochtitlan and the enslavement of the population. It's like colonial fake news, but

But over just the past few years, archaeologists working at the temple may or excavation site discovered proof of widespread human sacrifice among the Aztecs. And the proof was none other than the very skull towers and skull racks that the conquistadors described centuries ago. So those ancient reports were true. What else did history get right?

Human sacrifice was an integral part of the Aztec religion, as it was for many other societies in the New World, including the Maya. One of the central beliefs of the Aztec was that we see the Pochli, the god of the sun, needed constant nourishment in the form of human blood. Blood was seen as the sacred life force that was needed to keep the sun moving from east to west across the sky. Without human sacrifice, the world would end. So.

What else are you going to do now? Reports vary as to how many people were sacrificed once, but we're not talking about one or two. Eyewitness accounts claim that between 20000 and 80000 people were put to death as part of a dedication ceremony at Temple Mayor in Tenochtitlan in 1487. You know, I prefer a nice ribbon cutting, right? Me too. A little shovels of champagne.

Why do we kill anybody? But this isn't unique to the Aztec or the Maya. Throughout human history, the rise of ritual sacrifice often coincides with the emergence of complex societies and social stratification.

It's a pretty effective method of intimidating your rivals and keeping your own people in line. I mean, just look at the gladiator battles of Imperial Rome or the mass burials of servants and captives alongside Egyptian pharaohs and Chinese kings. Now, the Aztec sacrifices were sometimes slaves and sometimes prisoners captured by the Aztecs during their frequent wars.

But many captured soldiers, slaves and even Aztec citizens went willingly to the sacrificial altar to give your heart as a sacrifice was considered a great honor and guaranteed a blessed afterlife. That's really taking one for the team. It certainly is.

Now, whether voluntary or not, can you imagine the terror that people must have felt as they waited to be sacrificed by Aztec priests? But it turns out it's even scarier. Experts have revealed that a terrifying noise would have accompanied the ghastly ritual and was emitted by skull shaped whistles. OK, you guys ready for this? If you're wearing headphones, you may want to turn this down. I'm going to play the sound raw and then I'll show you a couple of videos of people actually playing these

They're not really instruments, they're actually called resonators. Okay, that's your warning. Ready? Here we go. Worst ASMR video ever. So when I first heard this, it reminded me of the ringwraiths from Lord of the Rings. Remember those? Yep, those were scary. Okay, so imagine you're waiting to be sacrificed. You had a nice meal. You're oiled up. The crowd is screaming. Is this a sacrifice or a professional wrestler? Then suddenly...

The Aztec death whistle has been described as sounding like humans howling in pain, or as one researcher said, the scream of a thousand corpses. Corpses are usually pretty quiet. Please.

Please don't heckle me when I'm trying to be dramatic. Fine, fine, fine. Touchy. Discovered. Doing my job. You don't got to jump down my road every time you see me. Discovered decades ago, the whistles initially attracted the attention of archaeologists because of their skull shape. That's pretty cool. But it's only recently that the actual sound they make has been investigated. I mean, if you dig one of those up as your first instinct to put it in your mouth.

The Aztecs used the sound of the death whistle to help people's souls travel to the afterlife when they were being sacrificed. But the whistles were also used by warriors to intimidate enemies heading into battle. Over 100 death whistles would be played as a form of psychological warfare, and I think that would be pretty effective. Actually, let's hear what that might sound like.

OK, here's what I did. I layered 100 death whistles on top of each other and I pulled in some ambient sound so we can kind of get an idea of what this would have sounded like. That would scared the **** out of me. OK, so what the heck is this thing?

The death whistle was used in several areas of ancient Mesoamerica and belongs to an unusual family of Mexican resonators. And these resonators are not very well known yet, but the instruments we do understand can produce sounds imitating animals and replicate the noise of wind or storms. Still, this is not a common whistle or musical instrument that would have been used for entertainment.

The leading theory states that the whistles are associated with death rituals not only because of the skull decoration, but because two were found in the hands of a sacrificed male skeleton in front of the temple of Wingod Ehekadl at Tlatelolco.

Easy for you to say. It wasn't. So in the sound of the death whistle was analyzed, the noise generated was compared to howling wind and the strongest frequencies fell within the range of human hearing, which is one kilohertz to six kilohertz. The dynamics of the sound that the whistle generates is so complex that it can't be simulated with computerized mathematical models.

This is probably a good thing. It was Jose Luis Franco who published the first drawings of the death whistle in 1971. One of his drawings shows the decorative face of a skull. Another drawing shows the internal structure of a death whistle with a decorative face of an owl. In Mexican cultures, the owl is associated with the coming of death. Especially for mice. Thank you, folks. I'm here all week. Make sure you tip your waitress and hit subscribe.

Okay, okay, I got one of those in here. Okay. Let's see how scary it is. What do you think? Scary? Nope. Intimidating? No. No, I hear you make that sound all the time. Rude. Just saying. Come here and pull my flipper.

Archaeologists have also discovered the existence of other types of resonators used by the Aztecs. They're made of clay, turkey feathers, sugar cane, frog skins and other natural materials, each one serving a specific purpose. For example, shells were blown at the beginning of ceremonies while hunters used animal shaped ocarina's to produce grunts that lured deer.

Medical doctors believe that the Aztecs may have used the sounds to cure illnesses. Curing illness with noise might sound a little woo woo, but as we explore the effects of these artifacts, there are some interesting findings. For example, we know that when two or more similar whistles are played at the same time, special effects can be produced. This is due to the vibrations generated or phantom sounds.

And if the beats are infrasonic, meaning too low for the human here to detect, they're thought to be able to create altered states of consciousness. Are we going to try it?

Yeah, I don't think so. I'm not sure if the death whistle can cure illness, but I'm pretty sure it can cause it. But the Aztecs might have been onto something. Vibroacoustic therapy is like a low frequency sound massage, and it may help people with debilitating diseases. It's basically stimulating the body with very low sound, like sitting on a subwoofer. And low frequency sound therapy has shown promising results in reducing the symptoms of all kinds of diseases.

You know, for the most part, we look at ancient cultures as if they were deaf and mute and made of stone. But the truth is, no matter how far back in time you go, people were living vibrant lives full of color, sound, music, art, philosophy. They were an awful lot like us. They laughed, they loved, they raised families. And on occasion, they spiced things up with ritual sacrifice. Hey, nobody's perfect. Amen, brother.

Thanks for hanging out with us today. My name is AJ. That's heckle fish. This has been the Y files. If you had fun or learned anything today, do me a favor and feed the algorithm with a comment or a thumbs up. It really helps the channel until next time. Be safe, be kind and know that you are appreciated.