Abstract
Since 2014, the Centre Jean-Bérard has been engaged, together with the Archaeological Superintendency of Foggia and the University of Salerno, in a research program on one of the largest settlements in northern Apulia, " Arpi : forms and lifestyles of an Italiote city ". With its clay walls enclosing an area of 1 000 hectares, its painted chamber tombs, mosaic-paved houses and polychrome vases, this settlement offers the specialist in southern Italian urban cultures an unusual and out-of-the-ordinary model. The study of archives, material and decorations has enabled us to pinpoint the stages in its formation and transformation, from the first attestations of occupation of the site from the Iron Age onwards, but above all between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC, through contacts between Daunian, Osco-Samnite, Greek, Roman and Punic populations.
