3400 BC to 219 BC

Megaliths and hillforts

Farmers raised megalithic monuments across the south, such as the stone circle of Almendres near Evora, begun more than seven thousand years ago. In the Iron Age the north west was dotted with castros, fortified hilltop villages, and peoples such as the Lusitanians lived inland. Phoenician traders reached the southern coast and the Tagus estuary.