This mode of inhabiting the territory – in hillforts – was common throughout Europe during the Bronze and Iron Ages, having received in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula the name of "culture of hillforts" or "Castro Culture", what refers to this type of cultural manifestation before the arrival of the Roman Empire. However, even after the Roman's fall, the Gallaeci-Romans continued living in hillforts until the 8th century A.C. Only in the territory of actual Galicia exist more than two thousand hillforts, which shows the greatest dispersion of population from the Iron Age in Europe, and which would be the origin of the Galician occupation of the territory inherited until nowadays, characterized by small and high numerous populations so distant from each other.