Towards the late Bronze Age (11th-10th centuries BCE), Illyrian populations from the eastern Adriatic arrived in Apulia probably using the narrow stretch of water between Albania and Italy.

The Illyrians in Italy create the Iapygian civilization, which consists of three tribes: Peucetii, Messapii and the Dauni.It differentiates from the two other regions inhabited by the Iapyges by its relative distance from the Greek colonies, from which it has less connections.

Having been also less influenced by the Campanian civilization, it hasthus a more peculiar culture, featuring in particular the Daunian steles, a series of funerary monuments sculpted in the 7th-6th centuries BCE 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 are 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.