Archaeologists have discovered the most ancient Christian building in Bahrain, the University of Exeter reported earlier this month. Professor Timothy Insoll jointly led the excavation project with Dr. Salman Almahari of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities between 2019 and 2023.

The building, which contains a kitchen, a dining room, a possible work room, and three living rooms, is one of the earliest Christian buildings in the Arabian Gulf. Radiocarbon dating suggests it was occupied between the mid-4th and mid-8th centuries.

Archaeologists believe the building was abandoned following the rise of Islam in the area. They determined it was occupied by Christians because there were three plaster crosses with graffiti scratched into them that included a Chi-Rho and a fish — early Christian symbols.

According to the report, the Church of the East, or the Nestorian Church, thrived in the area until a mass conversion to Islam took place in 610 A.D.

“This is the first physical evidence found of the Nestorian Church in Bahrain and gives a fascinating insight into how people lived, worked and worshiped,” Insoll told the University of Exeter. (For a fascinating, heartbreaking account of the once-vast, mostly vanished churches of the East, see Philip Jenkins’s The Lost History of Christianity.)