British archaeologists have discovered evidence of a previously unknown Anglo-Saxon island hidden beneath a barley field, a find they tout as one of the country’s most important in decades.

In 2011 Graham Vickers was scouring a barley field outside the quiet English village of Little Carlton with his metal detector when he found a medieval writing implement buried in the freshly plowed soil. Although the ornate silver stylus had lain silently below the surface for more than 1,200 years, it turned out that it had one more extraordinary story left to write since the relic has led archaeologists to discover a long-lost Anglo-Saxon island that was once a bustling center of international trade and a crossroads of civilizations from across northwest Europe hidden underneath the otherwise ordinary-looking field.

After Vickers reported his intriguing find to the government-funded Portable Antiquities Scheme, which encourages the voluntary reporting of archaeological objects unearthed by the public in England and Wales, further investigation revealed a trove of Anglo-Saxon relics—21 styli used to inscribe wax tablets, approximately 300 dress pins and a horde of coins dating from the 7th and 8th centuries.