The De Palo–Ungaro Archaeological Museum was established in 2000 thanks to Professor Teresa De Palo-Ungaro's initiative. The museum aimed to create a dedicated space in Bitonto to showcase the ancient Peucetian civilization. The museum houses artifacts uncovered during excavations in the surrounding area, particularly in the Via Traiana necropolis, which dates back to the 6th and 3rd centuries BCE. In addition to its archaeological collection, the museum includes a library, an art gallery, and the city’s historical archive.

The Peucetian culture, deeply rooted in the belief in life after death, practiced fetal-position burials, often accompanied by rich funerary offerings thought to be helpful in the afterlife. The museum display is organized across three rooms, tracing the social and cultural development of this ancient people through the evolution of their burial customs.

The first room features the oldest items, including a Corinthian helmet, a javelin tip, and a cantharoid vase adorned with geometric patterns, all dating to the first half of the 6th century BCE.

Particularly notable is the funerary set from the so-called “Turtle Tomb,” from the 3rd century BCE, which includes a rhyton shaped like a turtle’s head, a crater with mask decorations, and a kylix. Also on display is the burial of an athlete, identified through the presence of a strigil and red-figure ceramics depicting a winged Nike crowning a victor.

The second room houses the only semi-chamber tomb in Bitonto, dating to the 4th century BCE. Its refined symposium set includes metal objects such as a tripod, skewers, a grater, and a poker. Particularly significant is a crater with masks that likely portrays the deceased. Another tomb from the same period preserves a terracotta figurine of a seated woman, likely representing the person buried there.

The third room contains grave goods from burials, including a 5th-century BCE funerary set.

Especially striking are the silver and bronze fibulae, amber pendants, and glass beads of Phoenician origin—the only known Eastern artifact found in Bitonto. Some tombs appear to have been reused: in such cases, part of the earlier grave goods and remains were removed to make space for a new burial. The so-called “Tomb of the Ornaments” preserves evidence of two successive burials, including metal items such as strigils, forks, skewers, and a rich array of pottery.

Two tombs belonging to warriors, offer insight into aristocratic funerary practices. “Tomb A,” dating to the late 5th or early 4th century BCE, includes a symposium set and iron weapons such as javelin tips and knives. “Tomb B,” from the end of the 4th century BCE, contains a bronze belt and a silver coin placed near the deceased’s jaw—possibly for symbolic protection or as a coin for Charon, the mythical ferryman to the afterlife.