Sources typically used to build up an understanding of the lives of people who lived long ago cannot always be found in Daunia. For the Archaic period – a time that in Italy saw the colonization of Magna Graecia and the continued growth in complexity of Etruscan society – we might expect to find epigraphic evidence, substantial domestic, public and funerary architecture, figured ceramics, frescoes, sculptures and assemblages for the grave which speak of social nuance. For the most part, we do not. The Daunians seem to have led relatively modest lives and to have largely resisted external influences; unlike many of their neighbours they did not adopt elements of the Hellenic way of life until well into the fifth century bc. And although they clearly had dealings with the Etruscans, as well as other Italic populations, the Daunians retained their particular way of living for as long as possible, right up until the late fourth century bc and their eventual absorption into the Roman state. The material remains of the region suggest an autonomous people whose outlook took in the peninsula but focused primarily along the coast of the Adriatic and across the sea to Illyria, the probable land of their ancestors.