LONDON—A team of archaeologists has found what is thought to be the remains of the theater where Shakespeare's plays were first performed, BBC News reports.

The remains were discovered during excavations by the Museum of London at a site in Shoreditch, in east London, that is being prepared for a new theater. A spokesman for the museum said that it had long been known that an open-air playhouse called The Theatre had stood in the area, but it was now known exactly where. The Theatre was one of London's first dedicated playhouses when it opened in 1576; it was dismantled soon after and its materials taken to the South Bank to construct the Globe theater in 1599.

"As well as allowing us to walk in the footsteps of Shakespeare himself," said Jo Lyon, senior archaeologist at Museum of London Archaeology, "the remains help us to start uncovering one of London's enduring secrets."