Archaeologists working on a small island in the Persian Gulf have discovered an artifact attesting a Christian monastic presence on the island some 1400 years ago.
The site is located on Sir Bani Yas, an island some 110 miles southwest of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and has been known to archaeologists since 1992.
The evidence discovered is a plaster cross molded onto a plaque about 10.6 inches long, 6.7 inches wide, and a little less than an inch thick. The artifact is decorated with symbols suggesting the community that lived there belonged to the Church of the East (which began to split when the Church refused the condemnation of Nestorian heresy at the Council of Ephesus in 431 and did not recognize the Council of Chalcedon in 451).
