The Daunia is a historical and geographical region in Apulia, southern Italy, mostly coincident with modern Capitanata. In ancient times, together with Peucetia and Messapia formed the Iapygia.
It differentiated from the two other regions inhabited by the Yapiges by its relative farthness from the Greek colonies, from which it had less connections. Having been also less influenced by the Campanian civilization, it had thus a more peculiar culture, featuring in particular the Daunian steles, a series of funerary monuments sculpted in the 7th-6th centuries BC in the plain south of Siponto, and now housed in the National Museum of that city. Particularly striking is Daunian pottery (as yet little studied) which begins with geometric patterning but which eventually includes crude human, bird and plant figures.
The main Daunian centers were Teanum Apulum (within the modern San Paolo di Civitate), Uria, Casone, Lucera, Merinum (Vieste), Monte Saraceno (near Mattinata), Siponto, Coppa Navigata, Cupola, Salapia (near Cerignola and Manfredonia), Arpi (near Foggia), Aecae (near Troia), Vibinum (Bovino), Castelluccio dei Sauri, Herdonia (Ordona), Ausculum (Ascoli Satriano), Ripalta (near Cerignola), Canosa di Puglia, Melfi, Lavello and Venosa.
See also
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