The Whistling Vessels of Peru
Ancient Peruvian pots were made to whistle, and some give out sounds that seem to buzz inside the listener's head.
What was reported
Across ancient Peru, cultures including the Moche and Chimú made clay vessels with two connected chambers and a hidden whistle. When water is tipped from one chamber to the other, or air is blown in, the vessel whistles, sometimes in the voice of a bird or animal shaped on top.
In the 1970s, researchers who played many of them together found that the high, slightly different tones combine into a strange, pulsing sound that seems to come from inside the head.
Explanations offered
How they work is understood: air pushed through a small whistle by moving water or breath. What they were for is less clear. Suggestions include music, rituals and altering people's state of mind, as the combined sounds can be disorienting. Researchers have made working copies.
- When
- Made over about 2,000 years
- Where
- North coast of Peru
- Witnesses
- Archaeologists and musicians
- Status
- Purpose debated
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.