The Life and Death of the Little “Ice Prince” – History

The tomb of “The Ice Prince” is an elite 7th-century boy whose furniture-rich tombs buried in stone chambers has been completely excavated and studied for nearly four years. Scientific analysis of remains allows archaeologists to reconstruct children’s lives, deaths and funerals.

The grave was discovered in October 2021 in a new development in Tussenhausen near Bavaria matte. The excavation discovered the remains of a Roman building, which was later relocated to a tomb of an elite child, transforming the ancient structure into a mausoleum specifically targeting a young boy, and it was lost too early. The child is known as the Ice Prince because archaeologists used a new technique to freeze liquid nitrogen liquid liquid material and then remove it from a frozen block. The thick stone walls and the cover of the tomb were so sealed perfectly by lime mortar that no sediment penetrated it for centuries. Organic contents, including rare silk garments and rare remnants of leather sabba, are visible in the graves, but without a thick soil matrix to keep them stable, they have the potential to be destroyed only by inevitably being wasted in transit.

The clever solution designed on-site by the Bavarian State Office for Preserving Monuments (BLFD) archaeologists are to remove heavy stone walls of graves, reinforce the sides with padded wooden boards, slide the plates between the brick floor and the bottom of the grave, then wet the items in the layer. The surrounding untransparent soil is then cut open and the frozen island spreads throughout. Remove the sides, top and bottom of the chamber tomb respectively.

Transport the frozen blocks to the BLFD protection laboratory in Bamberg, where they are stored in the refrigerator until the thawing into the humidity and temperature control state begins. The researchers found that the boy died between 670 and 680 AD, a half-year-old young man. DNA analysis showed that he had blue eyes, light hair and strontium isotope analysis of tooth enamel, indicating that he was born and raised in the buried area. In the era before antibiotics, he suffered a common fate: he died of sepsis from middle ear infection.

His family must be very important in the region. They had a huge wealth to use silk such as silk imported from the Byzantine Empire and high-end handicrafts. They created a memorial building in the former Roman manor. At the time and location of an unusual stone building, the home uses skilled plaster to build a thick flat burial room sealed with lime mortar.

Lying on the fur, the child wore leather shoes, pants and a long-sleeved shirt, made of exquisite linen, with Byzantine slims adorned with cuffs and front. He had silver bracelets on each wrist and silver spurs on his leather shoes. A short cut sword decorated with exquisite gold wire accessories is tied into the leather sheath. The funeral included a textile sewn from a cross made of two gold pieces, which might be evidence of the influence of early Christian faith or Christian portraits.

On the feet of the burial room are graves, probably placed on weaving pads: a bronze basin with a comb, a wooden bowl, a spherical drinking cup with silver accessories, foods including hazelnuts, apples and pears. The bones found next to the Bronze Basin were originally thought to belong to dogs, in fact, were the remains of piglets. All these elements play a ritual role in formal banquets. Participants washed their hands with bronze bowls, combed their hair, and then drank alcohol from the wooden boat with silver accessories.

The buildings that reshaped the graves at least twice after burial have maintained spaces of worship and memorial for decades, perhaps for generations. “They not only buried the child with honor, but they also leaned towards his memory.” [Mathias Pfeil, general director of the BLfD].