The earliest days of Christianity are hazy—relatively few written records survive from this era, and religious artifacts are rare archeological finds. Still, a newly discovered early Christian monastery, dating to just six centuries after the religion got its start, could offer clues to how the faith spread across the world.

In a new study published this week in the journal Antiquity, researchers describe how a group of historians helped discover the early medieval monastery in a stroke of good luck.

The site is situated on the island of Lismore and is believed to have been founded by Saint Mo Luóc, an early Christian saint also known as Moluag. Researchers had long suspected Mo Luóc’s monastery was there but hadn’t been able to prove it until the local Lismore Historical Society led an excavation in the area, which also holds the ruins of a 13th-century cathedral.

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With the help of professional archeologists, the historians uncovered ancient grave sites, buildings, pieces of sculpture and extensive evidence of craft workshops at the site.

Gordon Noble, the paper’s senior author and an archeologist at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, says that the evidence of craftworking is particularly exciting. The team found hundreds of clay molds and crucibles used for working bronze, silver and gold—a somewhat “unusual” find for a monastery, Noble says.

“It’s one of the largest metalworking assemblages we have from any site, secular or sacred, in this time period,” he says.

Overall, the size of the monastery suggests Lismore, which lies on Loch Linnhe on Scotland’s west coast, was likely more important to medieval Christian society than previously realized, he says.

Other sites are known to have played a major role. For example, the island of Iona, to the southwest of Lismore in Scotland, is known for being the “Cradle of Christianity.” But the new findings suggest Lismore was “a very significant mover and shaker” in the spread of the early religion, Noble says.

Noble and his colleagues plan to keep investigating the site, including an analysis of the monastery’s “vallum,” or outer boundary, often indicated by a wall or bank.

The entire monastery appears to have been “huge,” Noble says. “It’ll be really exciting to see what shows up in the coming years.”

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