The extraordinary death whistle was exclusively used in several zones of ancient Mexico and belongs to a very singular family of Mexican resonators that are not well known and can produce special sounds imitating animal calls and noise of the wind. It is not a common whistle or musical instrument. It has been associated with rituals of death by its decorated face of a skull and with the wind because two of them were found in the hands of a sacrificed man skeleton in front of the Ehecatl temple at the Tletelolco archaeological site. Its archaeological context and iconography are associated with two divine concepts of the ancient Mexican mythology: Ehecatl (wind) and Mictlantecutli (death). The study was initiated with the direct analysis of a fragment of clay whistle from the Mazatepetl (deer hill in the south of Mexico city). Some examples of buccal noise generators that were analyzed and identified by the author are presented. Morphology and acoustic characteristics of death whistle and its sounds are discussed, and the main information and available data on the fragment found on the Mazatepetl as well as its procedure of construction and probable uses of its sounds are also discussed
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October 2010
Meeting abstract. No PDF available.
October 18 2010
Death whistle.
Roberto Velazquez;
Roberto Velazquez
Inst. Virtual Tlapitzacalzin, Trujillo 726, Col. Lindavista, DF, C.P. 07300, Mexico City, Mexico
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Francisco Rivas Castro
Francisco Rivas Castro
INAH, DF, C.P. 06060, Mexico
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J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 128, 2389 (2010)
Citation
Roberto Velazquez, Francisco Rivas Castro; Death whistle.. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1 October 2010; 128 (4_Supplement): 2389. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.3508553
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