New research in Ascoli Satriano

However, the area of Ascoli Satriano was already a settlement site of regional and supra-regional importance well before these events. While few prehistoric findings are known to date, from the Iron Age onwards, especially from the 7th BC onwards, a not inconsiderable presence of ancient Italic populations can be documented archaeologically in the form of settlement traces, but especially in the form of graves. These inhabitants of what is now northern Apulia are referred to in Greek and Roman written sources as "Daunians", who, according to one of the (certainly late-constructed) traditions, were descended from the mythical King Daunos, who is said to have ruled here at the time of the Trojan War.

The archaeological finds from the settlement area of "Daunian" northern Apulia show some particularly characteristic types of finds: One is the so-called "daunian" stelae made in archaic times (7th - 5th century BC): highly rectangular stone slabs in abstract anthropomorphic form depicting human figures with rich costume and armour. They are a unique testimony to indigenous iconography and testify to the high cultural and artistic level of the inhabitants of this relatively unexplored region. The ceramic products of the area also bear witness to the high level of technical and craft skills as well as the special 'taste' of its inhabitants. They are characterised by typical regional vessels, such as olla (large, bulbous storage vessel), attingitoio (shallow bowl with a high, sometimes sculptured handle) and askos (bag-shaped pouring vessel with one or two spouts), which differ in their design from other surrounding ceramic traditions. The vessels, fired from light-coloured clay, are covered with fine dark brown, and from the 7th/6th century BC also two-coloured (red and dark brown) geometric patterns. Simple geometric bird (?) figures are also characteristic and frequent for this style of pottery. With a few stylistic modifications (in the 4th century BC, for example, horizontal floral bands became a popular decoration, largely replacing the geometric patterns), the production of regional pottery continued into the 3rd/2nd century BC - longer than in all other southern Italian regions, where Italic pottery products were replaced by Greek-style pottery much earlier.

This traditionalism may be due to the fact that there were no Greek settlements (apoikia or so-called 'colonies') on the Adriatic coast of Apulia, as documented in other places in southern Italy and Sicily since the 8th century BC. It is precisely this regional independence that makes northern Apulia a particularly interesting area of research - a region that was only indirectly exposed to Greek influence from the 7th century onwards, but certainly had knowledge of and relations with the new arrivals of the city-states in the Ionian Gulf (e.g. Taranto, Metapont) and also selectively integrated their material goods (e.g. pottery) into its own living environment. From the late 4th and 3rd centuries BC, the region was then the scene of conflicts between the western Greek coastal cities, the northern Greek (Epirotic-Macedonian) kings allied with them and their armies, and the rising power of Rome, which extended its sphere of influence to the entire Italic peninsula.

From the 4th century BC in particular, somewhat later than in the areas close to the Greek foundations, Greek-style pottery was also produced in northern Apulia and integrated into the indigenous way of life and, above all, funerary culture to a much greater extent than before. Workshops in places such as nearby Canosa and in Ascoli Satriano itself now produced vases richly decorated with figures in the red-figure style, which were deposited in the tombs of the local elite and demonstrated their penchant for luxurious funerary rituals.

However, the most impressive testimony to local funerary luxury of the 4th/3rd century BC is an ensemble of monumental stone objects from a tomb in the Ascolis area that was looted by grave robbers and therefore cannot be located with certainty. On these marble objects (several vases, a basin and, above all, a table base in the shape of two griffins tearing a hind), numerous traces of painting are also well preserved, which attest to the colourfulness of these ancient objects, most of which have been lost today.