BAPSKA, CROATIA—A 6,500-year-old oven has been unearthed during recent excavations at a Neolithic home site in eastern Croatia. Marcel Buric of the University of Zagreb told The Croatian Times that the oven provided the residents with cooked food, hot water, and central heating around the clock. “This discovery is important. Because the houses of this period are made of wattle and daubed with a roof made of hay, using an open fireplace was dangerous. But a roofed fireplace, like the one in Bapska, besides being safer, also had other advantages,” he said. In addition, a smelted piece of iron ore, and the cremated remains of a 15-month-old child, left, that may have been sacrificed were uncovered. “We know that such sacrifices were made to ensure the growth of crops by giving a life and putting it back into the earth. The more treasured the life, say a baby, the better the result, or so they thought,” he added.