4320 by Meso & Central American Sound Library Project

This unprovenienced Late Classic Period (A.D. 600-850) Maya whistle features three globular resonators connected to independent airducts, the latter joined into a single vertically positioned tubular apical mouthpiece. Based on stylistic analysis, we assume this sonic artifact was hypothetically manufactured in Campeche (Mexico) and retrieved/looted there. It has been adorned with the typical chubby dwarf head appliqué motif, wearing cloth ear pendants, a cotton necklace, and a tree-cornered skullcap.

The dwarf figure is part of the Late and Terminal Classic Periods "ritual clowning complex" (buffoons, musicians/dancers, entertainers) (Halperin 2021). This personage is sometimes represented in a dance pose, flanking a richly attired Maya lord and a fat man figure. This means that dwarves probably participated in large-scale performances centered around the ruler. (Halperin 2014: 114). Dwarves appear frequently on stone monuments and large-scale media alongside rulers, as sky or throne bearers, which underlines that they were considered to play an essential role in supporting the authority of elite members. The three globular resonators of 4320 may represent the three stones of the first mythical hearth established at the creation event on 13.0.0.0.0. This primordial legendary toponym is sometimes referred to as Uxte’tuun/Oxte'tun (/ux-te’-tuun/, ‘three-nc-stones’). Dwarves were associated with period-ending ceremonies and mythical actions like raising the world trees and historically resided in royal courts.

The triple whistle held at the MIM emits rough and heterodyne tones. Although scholars frequently assert that the fundamental frequency discrepancy generated by each whistle is the result of a difference in volume between the resonators, our current research tends to show that the size of the apertures also very often plays a decisive role in the tuning of Mesoamerican multiple whistles.

This aerophone (accession #4320) is kept in Brussels's Musical Instruments Museum storerooms. The MIM purchased it from Galerie Émile Deletaille on March 3, 1967.

Overall dimensions (height x width x depth): 7.07 x 6.68 x 7.40 (cm).
Please click the track info button for additional pictures and data (dimensions, capacity) on 4320.

The MCASL Project aims to share, visually and sonically, a sample of the large pre-Columbian era sound-producing artifacts collection from Mesoamerica and Central America housed at the Royal Museums of Art and History (KMKG-MRAH), Brussels. The development of this audio/data library is part of Jean-François Brohée's doctoral research, funded by a FRESH grant of the F.R.S.-FNRS.