Side view (left) | Photographer: Claudia Obrocki | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
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Sound whistle. Fragmentary, (badly restored). Height 6.8 cm, width 5 cm, tubular aeroduct approx. 4 cm long, diameter 0.6 cm. Grey body, remnants of white painting (engobe?), mouthpiece dark red, polished. Late Postclassic (ca. 1350-5121 AD). Origin High Valley of Mexico. Uhde Collection. Noise pipes of the same type were found in sacrificial depots dedicated to Quetzalcoatl in Tlatelolco, Mexico City. The instruments were also built into the end of the handles of Aztec incense burners, which symbolise Xiuhcoatl ("fire snake"). The wind noise that can be produced on them was possibly associated with the cold obsidian knife winds of the underworld. In addition to skulls (mictlantecuhtli?), these instruments also depict owls, nocturnal animals associated with the underworld. A recording has already been made of this piece, whose sound-generating mechanism is not damaged. (Adje Both, 2004)
