Clay and fire: unveiling domestic spaces, hearths, and ovens in the Iron Age settlement of Nadin-Gradina, northern Dalmatia (Croatia)

Hearths, ovens, and other thermal structures remain underexplored features in the archaeological landscape of the Liburnian cultural region of the eastern Adriatic. Research at the Iron Age site of Nadin-Gradina in northern Dalmatia (Croatia) addresses this lacuna by exploring its long-term occupational history, built environment, and associated domestic features. Excavations revealed a deeply stratified settlement occupied continuously from the Late Bronze or Early Iron Age through Late Antiquity, preserving substantial evidence for residential architecture and domestic spaces. Throughout its prehistoric occupation, or much of the first millennium BCE, hearths and ovens were closely associated with interior household spaces and appear overwhelmingly domestic rather than communal in nature. Thermal structures frequently occur in clusters, which may suggest complementary practices for food preparation and/or heating within individual residential units. Despite these advances, the morphology and function of many thermal structures remain difficult to determine given their states of preservation and the stratigraphically complex, palimpsestic archaeological environments in which they are found. Current evidence highlights both continuity in household spatial organization across centuries and the methodological challenges of interpreting thermal features within the complicated occupational history of an Iron Age hillfort.