Imagine a burial mask constructed from the most important document in the history of western civilization. While some search for treasures in the burial vessels of kings, not every deceased Egyptian was wealthy enough to afford such proceedings. Most were of such modest means that their burial masks were pieced together from used scraps of papyrus and some glue. While most such masks reveal little of interest, one discovered by a group of researchers may have been pieced together using part of the Christian Bible’s Gospel of Mark.

If they’re correct, the significance of the find would be monumental: Dated to 90 AD, it predates the oldest-known Gospel text by more than 100 years.

“We have every reason to believe that the original writings and their earliest copies would have been in circulation for a hundred years in most cases — in some cases much longer, even 200 years,” said Craig Evans, a professor of New Testament studies at Acadia Divinity College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia and one of the researchers. Evans said that beyond just Biblical texts, they’re discovering everything from classical Greek texts, business transactions and even plain personal correspondence.

The discoveries aren’t without controversy. The researchers use a novel technique that allows them to separate the linen and papyrus sheets from the glue, preserving the text. However, archaeologists and anthropologists take issue with the technique, as it destroys the burial masks. Evans argues that the masks they’re destroying are far from museum quality and would be of little interest to other scientists. Evans and his team argue that the potential for discovery justifies the destruction of the artifacts.

“From a single mask, it’s not strange to recover a couple dozen or even more” new texts, he told Live Science. “We’re going to end up with many hundreds of papyri when the work is done, if not thousands.”

Unfortunately, the world’s anthropologists and Biblical scholars won’t get an opportunity to examine the text and its authenticity until the team’s findings are published later this year. The researchers involved in the project have signed non-disclosure agreements, usually at the request of the museums and private owners of the mask who don’t wish to be named or involved. The only reason he’s able to reveal that it’s a first century writing of the Gospel of Marks, Evans says, is because of information leaked in 2012 following the initial discovery.

Evans is confident, though, saying that the text was dated to sometime before the year 90 AD through a combination of radiocarbon dating and handwriting analysis.