Ancient Egyptian guards may have used a tiny cow bone with a hole drilled into it to keep royal tomb workers in order.

The strange artifact was discovered in the Akhetaten Stone Village, a workers' settlement located near the royal cemetery, dating back to the Eighteenth Dynasty, approximately 3,300 years ago.

An in-depth analysis has now revealed that not only would the bone have functioned as a whistle, but also that there are very few other things it could be.

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According to a team led by archaeologist Michelle Langley of Griffith University in Australia, the most likely use of the whistle would have been either to communicate across the settlement or possibly to manage the working dogs that accompanied

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