Since 2014, the Centre Jean Bérard has been involved, along with the Archaeological Superintendency of Foggia and the University of Salerno, in a research programme 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 an unusual and out-of-the-ordinary model for specialists in the urban cultures of southern Italy. A study of the archives, equipment and decorations has enabled us to pinpoint the stages in its formation and transformation, from the earliest evidence of occupation of the site from the Iron Age onwards, but especially between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC, as contacts between the Daunian, Osco-Samnite, Greek, Roman and Punic populations developed.