Sometimes the smallest object, surviving without fundamental change, can put us magically in touch with a vanished world. This little clay whistle was a modest enough object in its own time, perhaps blown at a religious festival. It is modeled in the shape of a comical human head with a snub nose like some Meso-American satyr. As we place it to our lips and coax out its high notes, we realize we are hearing the exact same sound as the whistle's original owner. We might know nothing else about that ancient life, yet for a brief second, we are connected directly to their world.