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The Daunians () were a Iapygians tribe that inhabited northern Apulia in classical antiquity. Two other Iapygian tribes, the Peucetians and the Messapians, inhabited central and southern Apulia, respectively. Although all three tribes spoke the Messapic language, they had developed separate archaeological cultures by the seventh century BC.
The Daunians lived in the region of Daunia, which extended from the eastern slopes of the Daunian Mountains (in the southwest) to the Gargano peninsula (in the northeast). This region coincides mainly with the province of Foggia and part of the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani today. Daunians and Oscans came into contact in northern Daunia and southern Samnite regions. Gradually, parts of northern Daunia became "Osci".
The Messapic tribal name Daunioi/Daunii has been connected to the Thunatae in the Balkans.
The descendants of the tribes that arrived in Apulia, collectively known as the Iapygians, were the Peucetians, Messapians and Daunians. The broader region was inhabited by Italic peoples of Southern Italy with whom the Iapygians maintained contacts; among them are the Ausones/Osci, Sabines, Lucani, Paeligni, Bruttii, Campanians, Aequi, Samnites and Frentani. Strabo, in a mythological construction to explain the foundation of Taranto, connects the Iapygians with Crete. Strabo recounts that they were descendants of Iapyx and a Cretan woman. Archaeological material shows little contact between Iapygians and Greek colonists. The retroactive ascription of a Crete or Arkadian heritage for the Iapygians was simply constructed for political purposes of the time these sources were written, and can be confidently attributed to mythology.
Iron Age Daunians showed the highest autosomal affinity with Early Iron Age Illyrians from Croatia and populations that were formed in Italy in the era, which both can be broadly included in a pan-Mediterranean genetic continuum (stretching from Crete to Republican Rome and the Iberian Peninsula). Links to Minoans/Crete and Iron Age Greeks/Arkadia are less likely. A parsimonious explanation of the Daunian's origin favors a genetic continuity between the Daunians and the population that inhabited the area prior to the historical period that was analyzed, although additional influences from Croatia (ancient Illyria) cannot be excluded, as described by the material remains and the available historical sources.
The main Daunian centers were Teanum Apulum (within the modern San Paolo di Civitate), Uria Garganica, the location of which though is not known with certainty, Casone, Lucera, Merinum (Vieste), Monte Saraceno (near Mattinata), Siponto, Coppa Nevigata, 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, Lavello and Venosa. Since its settlement, Messapic was in contact with the Italic languages of the region. In the centuries before Roman annexation, the frontier between Messapic and Oscan language ran through Frentania-Irpinia-Lucania-Apulia, the transboundary region between Daunians and Oscan-speaking Italic groups. An "Oscanization" and "Samnitization" process gradually took place; this is attested in contemporary sources via the attestation of dual identities for settlements. In these regions, an Oscan/Lucanian population and a large Daunian element intermixed in different ways. Larinum, a settlement that has produced a large body of Oscan onomastics, is described as a "Daunian city" and Horace, who was from Venusia in the transboundary area between the Daunians and the Lucanians, described himself as "Lucanian or Apulian". The creation of Roman colonies in southern Italy after the early 4th century BCE had a great impact in the Latinization of the area.
There are numerous testimonies among ancient authors (Pseudo-Scylax, Virgil, Festus, Servius) of a presence of the Daunians beyond the Apennines in Campania and Latium where some towns claimed Diomedian origins. The most notable instance is Ardea, the centre of the Rutulians, who were considered Daunians: Vergil writes that Turnus' father was Daunus. Festus writes that a King Lucerus of Ardea fought along with Romulus against Titus Tatius and this is the origin of the name of the Roman Luceres.
In the Graeco-Roman world, tattooing was conceived as a barbaric custom that was used exclusively for punitive or ownership purposes, but the Daunian perception of tattooing was different, as it was a deep and long-standing cultural embodiment distinguishing them from other cultures, as occurred among Illyrians and Thracians. The writings of ancient authors like Herodotus (5th century BC) and Strabo (1st century BC) show that, in the Balkans, tattooing was in the purview of the elites; iconographic and literary sources reveal in particular that it was restricted to the female members of society. In the western Balkans, isolated from outside influences, the practice of tattooing continued until the early 20th century in Albania and Bosnia, regions that in antiquity were part of the area of Illyria, where Daunian groups conceivably originated from. Besides of religious beliefs, the accounts of the early 20th century reveal that the tattooing custom in the Balkans was originally connected with a fertility rite, being associated with the beginning of menstruation, thus proving that a girl had become a woman.
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