Days before Christmas, archaeologists on Monday unveiled what they said were the remains of the first dwelling in Nazareth that can be dated back to the time of Jesus, the Associated Press is reporting. The find could shed new light on what the hamlet was like during the period the New Testament says Jesus lived there as a boy.

he dwelling and older discoveries of nearby tombs in burial caves suggest that Nazareth, in what is now the State of Israel, was an out-of-the-way hamlet of around 50 houses on a patch of about four acres. It was evidently populated by Jews of modest means who kept camouflaged grottos to hide from Roman invaders, archaeologist Yardena Alexandre, excavations director at the Israel Antiquities Authority, told the AP.

Based on clay and chalk shards found at the site, the dwelling appeared to house a "simple Jewish family," Alexandre said, as workers at the site carefully chipped away at mud with small pickaxes to reveal stone walls.

Nazareth holds a cherished place in Christianity. It is believed to be the town where Christian tradition says Jesus grew up and where an angel told Mary she would bear the child of God.

"This may well have been a place that Jesus and his contemporaries were familiar with," Alexandre said. A young Jesus may have played around the house with his cousins and friends, she said. "It's a logical suggestion."