The street urchin from Gouda was found when excavating the Sint-Janskerk in Gouda. This large, gothic church is famous for its stained glass windows. Most people in churches, except for the priests, are buried with their heads in the east, but not this boy. All the tell tale signs indicate that this boy was from the lower social classes and normally this means that his body was not even allowed to be buried inside the church.

This boy is not mentioned in the grave registers. He was fond of smoking clay pipes, on several locations his teeth showed round attrition holes where the pipes used to be. In his youth he went through periods of malnutrition  and  severe disease. The fictitious life of this teenager, intertwined with the lives of famous historical persons from Gouda, is described in a novel, written by Evert van Ginkel. This book also pays attention to the excavation and its archaeological finds.