Peru
Inca culture

Pottery, pigment
ca. 1400 to 1500 CE
Length: 7.5 in, Height: 8 in

Aerophones – Wind Instruments Proper – Edge-blown Flutes

A classic Inca whistling bridge spouted vessel with twin lobes and bridge connecting each. Seated inside the litter is an Inca lord. This pre-Columbian whistle is decorated with negative-resist pigment in cross-hatching and wave patterns. 

The vessel creates a whistling sound when liquid is added, and you tilt the lobe of the Inca lord downward.  This forces the water to push the air up the lobe splitting the edge of the lord’s mouth at the top, that creates the whistling sound.  Most of these whistling vessels were discovered interred as burial objects, likely as offerings for the afterlife.  Both the Inca and Moche cultures of the Andes are known for making these whistling bridge vessels.