Editing Hillfort (section)

=== Iberian Peninsula ===<!-- This section is linked from [[Campoo]] -->
[[File:Castro de Coaña.JPG|thumb|Hillfort at Coaña, [[Asturias]], Spain]]
{{Main article|Castro culture}}
{{Main article|Castros in Spain}}
[[File:Castrogalego.jpg|thumb|Hillfort in [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]]]]
In [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]], [[Asturias]], [[Cantabria]], [[Basque Country (autonomous community)|Basque Country]], [[province of Ávila]] and [[Northern Portugal]] a ''castro'' is a fortified pre-[[Ancient Rome|Roman]] Iron Age village, usually located on a hill or some naturally easy defendable place.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.castrenor.com/?mod=mapacastros&event=listaCastros&lang=en |title=Castrenor |publisher=Castrenor |access-date=2010-06-21}}</ref> The larger hillforts are also called {{lang|la|citanias}}, {{lang|la|cividades}} or {{lang|la|cidás}} (English: ''cities'').
They were located on hilltops, which allowed tactical control over the surrounding countryside and provided natural defences. They usually had access to a spring or small creek to provide water; some even had large reservoirs to use during [[siege]]s. Typically, a castro had one to five stone and earth walls, which complemented the natural defences of the hill. The buildings inside, most of them circular in shape, some rectangular, were about {{convert|3.5|-|15|m|abbr=on}} long; they were made out of stone with thatch roofs resting on a wood column in the centre of the building. In the major [[oppida]] there were regular streets, suggesting some form of central organization. Castros vary in area from less than a hectare to some 50 hectare ones, and most were abandoned after the Roman conquest of the territory.

Many castros were already established during the [[Atlantic Bronze Age]] period, pre-dating the [[Hallstatt culture]].

Many of the [[megalith]]s from the Bronze Age such as [[menhir]]s and [[dolmen]]s, which are frequently located near the castros, also pre-date the Celts in Portugal, [[Asturias]] and [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]] as well as in Atlantic France, Britain and Ireland. These megaliths were probably reused in syncretic rituals by the Celtic [[Druid]]s.

The [[Celtiberians|Celtiberian]] people occupied an inland region in central northern Spain, straddling the upper valleys of the [[Ebro]], [[Douro]] and [[Tajo]]. They built hillforts, fortified hilltop towns and [[oppida]], including [[Numantia]].