TEA 34 - European Association of Archaeologists

Stela in the National Museum of Manfredonia
(Apulia, Italy; no. 949 in Maria Luisa Nava's
catalogue Stele Daunie 1, Firenze, 1980).
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PhD on the topic in 2008.
The stelae of Daunia are anthropomorphic,
and carry no inscriptions. Each is
comprised of a single slab of limestone
incised to show a human figure in long,
richly decorated robes, with arms held
symmetrically across the chest. The men
carry weaponry, while the women wear
embroidered aprons, and are adorned with
jewellery. The heads of the stelae are
separate, standing atop of the slab. Drawn
within the geometric borders of their robes,
figured iconography is sometimes present.
The subject matter depicted is varied and
far-reaching. Included are scenes and
vignettes of weaving, hunting, fishing and
the preparation of food, of banquets,
farewells, processions, martial games and
warfare—even, arguably, of local myths,
legends and rituals.
The vast majority of the stelae were
gathered together in the 1960s and 70s
under the direction of Silvio Ferri of the
University of Pisa. Although there are today
some 1200 complete and fragmentary
examples, there are no known primary
contexts or provenances for them, rendering
any study of these enigmatic monuments
difficult. Nonetheless, headway is being
made. Implications are that they were
funerary in nature and, thanks to a typology
developed by Maria Luisa Nava, they can
be dated roughly between the late 7 th and
mid 5 th centuries BC.
Knowledge of the social and religious
identity of the Daunians is limited. They
were a society that, by and large, did not
otherwise produce figured art. Their pottery
is still decorated with geometric designs at a time when the pottery of the Greek and Italic
groups with which they were in contact is regularly figured, and statuettes and architectural
terracottas are rare. Furthermore, the Daunians did not embrace literacy. There are no extant
religious or civic structures to speak of in the region and their domestic architecture, having
not been widely excavated, is poorly understood. Although some of their sites grew to be
very large, the archaeological evidence for social hierarchy is restricted. The same is broadly
true of their funerary record. The narrative provided by the figured iconography of their stelae
is therefore invaluable as it provides the best insight into a society that we would otherwise
know relatively little about.
There is, however, also much to be gained from a study of the clothing and accoutrements of
the main figures themselves. Camilla’s recent paper at the EAA conference in Den Haag
investigated one such aspect: the decorated lower arms of the female stelae. The paper,
entitled ”The Tribal Tattooing of Daunian Women”, specifically sought to overthrow the longheld
assumption that this patterning represents embroidered or woven gloves. Instead she
proposed the markings represent tattoos. To support her theory she pointed to the possible
Thracio-Illyrian origins of the Daunians, tribes among those of the Balkans whom were well-
The European Archaeologist, Issue no. 34: Winter 2010