Short Stuff: Aztec Death Whistle | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. Josh, Chuck, Jerry in for Dave. This is. Short Stuff. [music]. Stand back. That's right. About the Aztec death. whistle. Uh we talked a lot about Mexico City, one of our favorite places to visit. And. if you go to Mexico City, you should. know that you are uh a lot of times. standing on the ruins of ancient burial. temples, Aztec temples. >> Mhm. And they have excavated those over. the years here and there. And in the. late '90s,

they excavated a temple. uh dedicated to as to the Aztec wind. god, and they uncovered the remains of a. 20-year-old uh male that was beheaded, squatting at the base of the stairway, and holding a couple of musical. instruments. Yeah, as an aside, I just want to say I. think I've said it before. Um the. the anthropological museum in Mexico. City is world-class. Yeah, that's on my list. It'll It'll. happen next time, for sure. >> It's great. For that very reason,

because there's so many ruins just built. right over that and preserved in that. way. I mean, think about it. Mexico. City's one of the most densely populated. cities on the planet, and people were. walking over a beheaded skeleton every. day until the late '90s, when they. excavated it, you know? >> So, yeah, you said that boy um did you. say he was holding whistles, or did you. just say he was holding something? Uh I. said musical instruments, but you Yeah, there you go. They're whistles. Whistles. I mean, you could have guessed. that from the title, right? Probably. But these whistles are special whistles.

First of all, they're kind of tiny, but. if you look closely, they had a skull. engraved on them. And what they think this whole thing. represents is the kind of union or. combination between Ehecatl. and Mictlantecuhtli. Um these are two gods. Mictlantecuhtli. is the Aztec god of the underworld and. death. Ehecatl is the Aztec wind god, and you put them together, you get two. very powerful gods. And they think. that's what these death whistles that. the guy was holding uh symbolized.

Nice job on those pronunciations. I. really looked it up. >> Yeah. And dude, you should see how many. mispronounced Oh, yeah. >> words there are that they just sound so. confident. There's one. um. uh there's a a festival. called uh Toxcatl Toxcatl. Mhm. T O X C. A T L. You have no idea how many like. how's it pronounced videos say Toxcatl. >> [laughter]. >> It's not Toxcatl.

Yeah, it it's. pretty disappointing the amount of wrong. stuff out there. Yeah. >> And if you're not sure how to pronounce. something, don't make a video telling. other people how to pronounce something. Yeah. I mean, we mispronounce stuff on. this show. Worldwide show, but we don't. tell people we're pronouncing it right. >> Exactly. This isn't like how. pronunciation works. Come on. So, this is the Aztec death whistle, those two whistles this guy I had. Um if. you do a little research, you're. probably going to see stuff about how. they were used to terrify enemies in.

battle, like they all played them at. once. But what we think we've come down to uh. thanks to, you know, the study of a lot. of people, but especially this one guy, Arnd Both, who is a music archaeologist, >> Mhm. is that these things probably were. a little more ceremonial Right. um and. maybe used to to help guide the spirit. in the afterlife. Uh. so, this dude uh. I don't know if he's a doctor or not, but Both is his name, like I said. Uh it's very cool. He's he's examines.

ancient musical instruments and. artifacts, tries to in a lot of cases. rebuild them, and take some good guesses. on what they were used for. Yeah, which. is I'm sure way harder than you would. think. Yeah. So, these um those two uh. death whistles were excavated in late. '90s, I think in the just a couple years. later in the aughts. Um but did you say. booth? I said both. Both. Um, he was the first person to actually play. them.

These things that were hundreds and. hundreds of years old that a skeleton. had been holding for God knows how long. Well, hundreds of years. Um, and he um, apparently didn't he was. like, "These they suck. These are. terrible death whistles." Yeah, it was a. little underwhelming. It didn't make uh, the big frightening noise they might. have expected. Uh, so he did CT scans on. them. Uh, rebuilt them larger. Uh, like, you know, exact replicas and. he found that they were a an air spring. whistle. So, uh, the Mayans had come up with these in.

7 to 800 CE and you blow air through. this intake tube and it reacts with a. spring of air inside this chamber and. distorts the sound then you can cup your. hand over the bottom like a lot of wind. instruments uh, and change the tone and. stuff, but it's it's completely its own. thing. Um, it's not like any western uh, any other western wind instrument. >> Yeah, they were only made in. pre-Columbian America. That's they are. very specific. And spring in this case. is not like a coiled spring. It's like a.

spring of water that you get delicious. water from, right? >> That's right. So, um, like I said, there's a big uh, oh, wait, we'll just take a break. How about that? Yeah, we'll be right back. >> [music]. [music].

[music]. [music]. >> Okay, Chuck, so I said there's a big. strong connection as I was saying before. before we broke, uh between the wind god. uh Miclantecutli. and Ehecatl, and I wasn't lying. There's. written proof that shows that I'm. correct.

That's right. Uh it's written in a. pre-Columbian document called the Codex. Borgia. And it is a manuscript. It's. illustrated, and it shows It's got a lot. of stuff in there. It's got history. It's got like some of the things that. we're studying like botany, the stars, uh and it's got a great big. comprehensive list of their pantheon of. gods. And the top-notch mushroom soup. casserole recipe. >> [laughter]. >> It might, for all I know. I can't tell. anymore. >> [laughter]. >> So, um uh.

Miclantecutli. uh and Ehecatl, I just like saying them. now. I know. Now that I can say them. correctly, Yeah. >> they're back-to-back, arms crossed like. local news anchors. >> they invent that? I think so. Oh, god. Um both looking at the at you, the. viewer, almost with a sassy kind of look. on their face. Sure. Uh and they're. guarding the underworld together. So, these These guys are definitely. connected in the Aztec pantheon, which. goes to support that that's what those.

death whistles are are kind of. symbolizing. Those They're these two. gods together that in one interpretation. at least you could say is um life and. death, the god of life, the god of. death. That's right. So, I mentioned it. may be used to kind of guide you through. the spirit world uh in that Aztec. tradition, when someone dies, it's a. pretty pretty perilous route to get to. the underworld. It takes nine years. Yeah, nine years, and there is all kinds. of rituals that people uh in the living.

world do to like urge them on, to give. them strength. Um one example here, in. this case, it's pretty appropriate, is. uh the dead cross a large field um being. whipped by a a wind, like a really. fierce wind. >> Mhm. And in that book, in the Codex. Borgia, those winds are represented by. blades, by obsidian blades. And uh those were the blades that they. used to make sacrifices. You go back to. this temple site where they found these. whistles, and not only did they have. those whistles, but there was a ceramic.

bowl there as well that had obsidian. blades next to the body of this guy. Mhm. And a little sign that said, "Take. one, leave one.". >> [laughter]. >> So, this I mean, what. all of this together just basically. shows this is what those death whistles. almost certainly were. And the reason. that we're And not just us, but Booth in. particular, Booth or both, um the music. archaeologist is going to all this. trouble is because we don't know exactly. what these things were um used for. How.

they were used, what they were meant to. sound like, we just don't know. So, you. have to piece together all this. disparate information to kind of come. together in what Booth ultimately is. laying a pretty good case for is that. these were ritual um musical instruments. used in a specific ritual, probably um. like you said, to help departed souls. across that field, that one level of the. underworld. Yeah, the wind. And then. also in that festival I talked about,

Toxcatl, um to honor the god uh Titlacahuan. Tetzcatlipoca. That one is pronounced like it looks. Yeah, so uh in 1913, there was a. folklorist named Lewis Spence. >> Nice. who wrote. >> [laughter]. >> I really nailed that one. who wrote uh Myths of Mexico and Peru, and he described this festival, and this is sort of the key part as far. as we're concerned, uh on the day of. this festival, a youth was slain, yada. yada yada, he carried also the whistle. symbolical of the deity, uh Lord of the.

night wind, and made with it a noise. such as the weird wind of night makes. when it hurries through the streets. Yeah. And it does I mean there's. >> it. There's videos online of people. playing these like indigenous musicians. playing death whistles. Um and you can. kind of get the idea of like oh okay. this kind of does sound like an agonized. scream. Uh there's a point to be made though. that these replica death whistles that. especially you know made by both.

um. they're larger than the the regular. size. So just by that alone means. they're not going to sound like the. other ones will. So I think what both. kind of concluded is that Heath just. he's not instructed in how to play these. original small death whistles that the. the sacrifice guy was um was was. holding. Yeah. And that he just can't he. can't do it. He never had a whistle in. his life. He looked around at the crowd. Yeah. Yeah the notion that they were maybe. used in battle they definitely did stuff.

like that with obviously drums but also. blowing into conch shells like the. Wopani Woo. getting together maybe they're. communicating with each other maybe. they're just again trying to like scare. their enemies but when they asked both. like well what about this death whistle. he was like have you seen these things? He's like this is the size of my pinky. Yeah. It's tiny. >> this isn't going to scare even 300 of. these isn't going to scare anybody. >> No but some drums will and a conch shell. will for sure. Yeah. So that's it. Death whistles probably.

not used in battle but almost certainly. used in rituals that ended in someone's. beheading. That's right. Uh Chuck said that's right. I think that. means short stuff is out. Stuff You Should Know is a production of. iHeart Radio. For more podcasts [music]. from iHeart Radio visit the iHeart Radio. app Apple Podcasts or wherever you. listen to your favorite shows. >> [music].