Northern and northwestern Iberia and its moist and mild climate was wonderfully suited both to the Celts and their cattle *S*. Men could herd, fight, and hunt, and women could cultivate wheat for bread, barley for beer, and flax for textiles, or gather nuts and fruits.

Their animals could also find their food in the northern forests of Iberia. The large number of "verracos" proves the importance of herding. The region of these granite sculptures centers in the Spanish provinces of Avila, Salamanca, and Zamora. From there the sculptures spread into the North Portugal and even into Galicia. They venerated their animals, but they enjoyed their flesh as well. Strabo spoke of Cantabria as being an area of fine hams, and Varro said that "it was asserted that once when a pig had been killed in Lusitania there was sent as a present to a senator two ribs with meat attached which weighed twenty-three pounds, and that in the pig the depth of flesh from skin to bone was one and a quarter feet." (oh, that's very informative reading for my vegetarian tastes!)

Besides their cattle, Celts also brought with them their plow, although it was not everywhere used. For example, there was probably no plow used in North Portugal before the Romans. This can be explained by the strong matrilineal remnants of this area: men considered farming unmanly and woman's work. But more pratically, the plow was of little use for in the hilly northwest, where people lived on the uplands.

Nevertheless, parts of Iberia were exploited by men with plows. The Vacceos (later Celtiberians), living along the middle course of the Douro River were skilled grain farmers. Large quantities of wheat were harvested, especially around Palencia, at the time of the Celtiberian war.

Gathering seems to have had considerable importance to celtic economy in Iberia. Strabo reported that the northern people depended upon acorns for their food during three quarters of the year; he was probably neglecting the importance of chestnuts.

Concluding this brief overlooking of Celtic economy in Iberia, in the northern mountains, there may have been a combination of herding, farming, hunting, and gathering.

In another point of view, I would like to mention that the Vacceos were an interesting bunch: they were organized into a firmly controlled collectivist society. Those collective traditions remained (in some ways attenuated, of course) until nowadays in remote mountainous Portugal and northwestern Spain.