A 5,000-year-old petroglyph has been found in the ceiling of a small cave in the Egyptian Sahara desert depicting what seems like a familiar scene in Christian history. Although an image of parents and a new born child can be a depiction of anything, the drawing of a star in the east and two animals made researchers take a second look. A seemingly familiar nativity image, could this be an image of Jesus' birth?

According to a report from Seeker, what makes this discovery even more special is that the image predates the Christmas Nativity, or Jesus' birth, by approximately 3,000 years. A lot of questions are currently running through the minds of scientists, among them is if Jesus' birth happened 3,000 years earlier than originally recorded.

The Italian researchers that discovered this petroglyph has said they have found the cave in 2005, but chose to do further research before officially spreading the news to the public. There are, of course, very little evidence to show that this image portrays the birth of Jesus.

For years, many people have wondered about the historical accuracy of Jesus' birth and have searched for clues to support, or probably deny, the events of this Christmas story. Live Science reports that a number of scientists insist that Jesus was not born in A.D. 1. In fact, there may be evidence to show that he was born earlier than that.

However, the research has shown that this is the only image that looked like a nativity scene in the area. Also, there are no other indications that the image has shown the birth of Jesus. Some skeptics have expressed that the image could be anything. It could be a Neolithic man drawing the death of his child or a depiction of day to day lives with domesticated animals.