Celia peuceta

Celia peuceta stood on a plateau 70 metres above sea level between the Fitta and Picone streams, five kilometres south of modern Bari in Apulia. The site was already visited in the Bronze Age, and fragments of Iron Age pottery have been found along the Fitta path and in caves at Reddito, Buterrito and Tufaia. Greek and Latin writers such as Strabo and Claudius Ptolemy mention the town, while the Peutinger Table and the Ravenna Cosmography list it among Peucetian settlements. The city reached its height in the Hellenistic period, when its elite filled tombs with black-figure and red-figure pottery from Attica and statues from Metapontum. Excavations at Sant’Angelo have uncovered chamber tombs with painted slabs and rich grave goods, while nearby San Nicola preserves houses and later burials sealed under pressed tufa. A four-kilometre-long double wall once defended the town, though only scattered stretches remain after its stones were reused for Bari’s seafront in the early 20th century. Today visitors can walk short sections of the ancient ramparts near Porta Mura and see the remains of the Iron Age necropolis at Sant’Angelo. The plateau still bears traces of the Hellenistic expansion, and occasional fragments of painted vases and architectural terracottas appear in the soil. The streams mark the old boundaries, and the surrounding fields preserve the setting described by ancient geographers.