…permanent settlements were the northerncastros, hill villages first built by Neolithic farmers who began clearing the forests. Incoming peoples—Phoenicians, Greeks, and Celts—intermingled with the settled inhabitants, and Celticized natives occupied the fortifiedcastros. For two centuries these were centres of resistance to the Roman legions. Subsequently the Romans, Suebi,…

…the Bay of Biscay, so-calledcastros—small settlements fortified with a deep ditch and inner bank—arose, with a flourishing bronze industry linked to southern Britain and France and a custom of burying hoards of metal tools and weapons. Mining for copper ores was practiced at El Milagro and Aramo (Asturias), where…

…northwest, in fortified compounds calledcastros. The people spoke Indo-European languages (Celtic and Lusitanian) but were divided culturally and politically into dozens of independent tribes and territories; they left behind hundreds of place-names. Celts, living on the central mesetas in direct contact with the Iberians, adopted many Iberian cultural fashions,…