Castro culture is the archaeological term for the material culture of the north-western regions of the Iberian Peninsula from the end of the Bronze Age until it was subsumed by Roman culture . It is the culture associated with the Celtiberians, closely associated to the western Hallstatt horizon of Central Europe. The most notable characteristics of this culture are: its walled oppida and hill forts, known locally as castros, from Latin castrum castle, and the scarcity of visible burial practices, in spite of the frequent depositions of prestige items and goods, swords and other metallic riches in rocky outcrops, rivers and other aquatic contexts since the Atlantic Bronze Age. This cultural area extended east to the Cares river and south into the lower Douro river valley. The area of Ave Valley was the core region of this culture, with a large number of small Castro settlements, but also including larger oppida, the cividades , some known as citânias by archaeologists, due to their city-like structure: Cividade de Bagunte , Cividade de Terroso , Citânia de Briteiros, and Citânia de Sanfins.
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