Free Republic

(BEIJING) - Chinese police freed four men found to be working as virtual slaves in a brink kiln in a case similar to one which shook the country last year, but lost three of them while trying to send them home, a report said on Friday. The four were free in late December in the northern province of Hebei, which surrounds Beijing, and had been working in appalling conditions at the kiln for up to a year, the China Youth Daily said. Some were suspected of being mentally disabled, and at least one was totally illiterate, knew neither his name...

Kiln's 'ancestor' found in Greece The structures bridge the gap between kilns and stone hearths Archaeologists have discovered the oldest clay "fireplaces" made by humans at a dig in southern Greece. The hearths are between 34,000 and 23,000 years old and were almost certainly used for cooking by prehistoric inhabitants of the area. Researchers found remnants of wood ash and phytoliths - a type of plant cell - in these hearths and lab tests show the clay was burnt. The study appears in the latest edition of the scholarly journal Antiquity. The discovery helps to bridge the gap between the...