This is a corn God from the Aztecs show at the Met. It seems that after forensic examination of these discovered artifacts they found out that they were whistles. The American museum curators, fearful of damaging it, didn't dare try to blow through it and could only imagine the sound it would have made. Their Mexican counterparts, though, tried it out and another one depicting a bird. By doing this they reconnected with the past in a visceral risky way and even found that the bird whistle sounded like the bird's song.