Traces of an Early Christian community have been discovered by archaeologists in the village of Samahij on the north coast of Muharraq Island, Bahrain, according to a press release issued by the University of Exeter. The remains comprise a large building with eight rooms beneath the remains of a later mosque, with the site yielding radiocarbon dates from the mid fourth century to the mid eighth century AD. At this time Christian communities belonging to the Nestorian Church, or Church of the East, are known from historical records to have been found around the Persian Gulf, although very few archaeological remains associated with these communities have been found to date, making the discovery of the site significant.
The excavations were carried out by a team of British and Bahraini archaeologists led by Timothy Insoll of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter and Salman Almahari of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, between 2019 and 2023, and a museum showcasing the discoveries is planned to open in 2025.
The building uncovered had stone walls with plastered internal walls. It was possible to identify the places where doors and fixed benches had been attached by sockets and holes in the walls and floor. One room had clearly been used as a kitchen with several hearths made from the bases of amphorae or other large storage vessels.
Food remains from the site are still being analysed, but suggest the people here enjoyed a diet including pork, fish, shellfish, and several plant crops. Other finds include beads made from carnelian, a semi-precious stone likely to have originated in India, as well as ceramics which are clearly of Indian origin, indicating the community were part of a trade network that reached the sub-continent. Other items include spindle whorls, copper needles, and glassware, including wine glasses, copper coins thought to come from the Sasanian Empire, which had its centre in modern Iran and incorporated much of the Persian Gulf area.
The site has been identified as Christian on the basis of three plaster crosses and gratfiti scratched in the plaster walls, which includes the Early Christian Chi-Rho and Fish symbols. During the late pre-Islamic period the site would have formed part of the Nestorian Diocese of Meshmahig or Mašmahig (which may be related linguistically to Samahij).
The Church of the East effectively split from the 'Church of the West' (i.e. the Roman church) in 410 AD, becoming the official Christian church of the Sasanian Empire, which at this time was at war with the Roman Empire in the west. This de facto separation was made official in 424, with the name 'Nestorian Church' becoming prevalent after 431, when the theologian Nestorius, who was Arch-Bishop of Constantinople, was condemned for heresy by the Council of Ephesus, for claiming that Mary should be described as the Mother of Christ but not the Mother of God, and sought refuge in the Sassanian Empire, becoming an important theological thinker and eventually a saint of the Church of the East.
These changes do not appear to have been universally accepted throughout the area claimed by the Church of the East, with a Bishop of Meshmahig being excommunicated in 410 AD, and another being condemned for challenging the unity of the church in the seventh century. Christianity ceased to be a major political power around the Persian Gulf with the rise of Islam in the seventh century, but the Church of the East still survives today as the Assyrian Church of the East, which is based in the city of Erbil in northern Iraq, and has over 400 000 followers, mostly living in Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, and India, the Ancient Church of the East, which is based in Bagdad, and has about 75 000 followers, mostly in Iraq and India, the Chaldean Catholic Church, which is also based in Bagdad and has over 490 000 followers, mostly in Iraq, but with substantial communities in the United States, Canada, and Australia, and the Syro-Malabar Church, based in Kerala State, India, with about 4..53 million followers, mostly in Kerala and Sri Lanka.
Early Christian archaeological sites are also known from other areas around the Persian Gulf, including Iran, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and eastern Saudi Arabia, although none of these are in locations still inhabited today, and most are younger than the Samahij site, further emphasising the importance of this locality.
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