The analysis of the child burial inside what had once been a Roman villa offers valuable information about the boy’s short life, the circumstances of his death, and the extraordinary effort surrounding his burial.

He became known as the “Ice Prince of Mattsies” due to the spectacular method used to recover his remains: the boy was discovered in 2021 in a richly furnished and well-preserved early medieval stone-slab grave near Mattsies in the Unterallgäu region. Using a special method developed by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection (BLfD) experts instantly froze the contents of the burial chamber. This allowed the child’s grave to be lifted entirely from the ground and transported to the BLfD’s restoration workshop near Bamberg, where it underwent detailed analysis.

“With the shock-freezing of the child’s grave in 2021, the BLfD entered uncharted territory. The findings now impressively demonstrate how much information can be extracted from such an extraordinary burial site through careful recovery methods and in-depth analysis,” said Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Mathias Pfeil, General Conservator of the BLfD.

Together with external specialists, BLfD researchers managed to reconstruct the child’s living conditions and the burial rituals from around 1,350 years ago. The boy likely lived between 670 and 680 AD; DNA analysis suggests he had blue eyes and light-colored hair. Neither the strontium isotope analysis of his teeth nor his DNA profile contradict the assumption that he grew up in the region. His dental development shows that he was breastfed until his death at the age of about 18 months. Despite the immune-strengthening properties of breast milk, he suffered a common fate in pre-modern times: he died from a chronic infection that had developed from a middle ear infection.

“The boy’s death likely deeply affected his family, who were evidently of significant regional standing. They went to great lengths to provide him with a burial befitting his social status. In a former Roman estate, a building was specially designated as a funerary and memorial space. Experienced stonemasons constructed a stone burial chamber sealed with lime mortar—a remarkable achievement for a time when stone buildings were rare,” explained the General Conservator.

Inside the chamber, the boy was laid on an animal hide. His clothing included leather shoes, trousers, and a long-sleeved upper garment made of fine linen, adorned with silk trimmings on the cuffs and front. Silk, obtainable only through contacts with the Byzantine Empire, was a clear status symbol. On his arms, he wore silver bracelets, and his shoes were fitted with silver spurs. The leather scabbard of the short sword at his waist was elaborately decorated with gold ornaments. A cloth with a cross made of two gold strips was also found in the grave.

At the foot of the chamber stood several items, likely arranged on a woven mat, indicating the boy’s high status in early medieval society. A bronze bowl contained a comb, a wooden vessel, a spherical drinking cup with silver fittings, and remains of hazelnuts, apples, and a pear. Contrary to earlier assumptions, the animal bones next to the bowl were not from a dog but from a butchered piglet. These objects were associated with ceremonial feasts: after combing the hair and washing hands in the bronze bowls, people would eat from turned wooden tableware and drink from silver-decorated cups.

Research also revealed that the burial structure was re-roofed twice after the child’s burial—indicating that it continued to serve as a place of remembrance for an extended period.