Daunian stele
Daunian steles are around 1500 relics of the Daunians , a people of Illyrian descent who lived from the 11th to the 10th centuries. Century BC Lived in Apulia , especially in the Gargano in the province of Foggia in Italy .
The cuboid limestone blocks, of which about 2000 fragments have been preserved, sometimes have a wedge-like rostrum (stele of Sipontum). They are flat, long rectangular and up to 1.3 m high with erect shoulders. The steles can be decorated on all sides. The decorations often reveal stylized human figures, whose arms are crossed at hip height. Arms and hands, like clothing and weapons, are only scratched open. Different weathered surfaces and traces of paint testify to a former painting, and references to metal applications can also be found. An apron and pendants hang on the belt, fibulae with pendants and swastics are shown on the upper body . The figurative representations show scenes from everyday life, refer to the cult of the dead or to ritual acts. On the eponymous stele of Daunia, a boat with a square sail is depicted.
The stelae were not discovered until the beginning of the 20th century, when ancient scholarship began to look for prehistoric relics. Some of them were found on old manors, where they were used as building material, and others lying in the open. Since their original locations remained unknown, their function cannot be determined - they were probably gravestones or boundary stones .
- The Castello Svevo-Angioino houses the Museo Nazionale di Manfredonia , one of the most important museums on early Apulian history with a number of Daunian steles.
- Archaeological finds from the pre-Roman times are also kept in the Museo Civico in Vieste . Among them are fragments of a stele with an epigraphic inscription carved with Messapic letters, which is described as "the most outstanding linguistic document of ancient Daunia".
- In Ascoli Satriano there is a Daun Archaeological Park and extensive private collections on the subject.
literature
- Maria Luisa Nava: Daunie I stele . Sansoni, Florence 1980.
- Maria Luisa Nava: Le stele della Daunia. Sculture antropomorfe delle publia protostorica dalle scoperte di Silvio Feri agli studi oiù recenti . Electa, Milan 1988.
- Ines Jucker: Stèles dauniennes . In: Silvia Cassani (ed.): L'art des peuples italiques. 3000 à 300 avant JC Electa Napoli, Geneva 1993, ISBN 88-435-4601-5 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name, Musée Rath , November 6, 1993 to February 13, 1994).