{"history":[],"article":{"id":"01a9c551-656a-42cf-93fb-9b48816aa5b1","title":"Galicians","slug":"galicians","content":":::summary\n![Galician bagpipers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Galician///pipers.jpg)\n**Group:** Galicians · Galegos \n**Population:** c. 3.2 million** · Map of the Galician Diaspora in the World.svg \n**Popplace:** 2,752,676 \n**Region 1:** [Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/undefined) 2,397,613 \n**Pop 1:** 2,397,613 \n**Region 2:** [Province of A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-a-coru-a) \n**Pop 2:** 991,588 \n**Region 3:** [Province of Pontevedra](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-pontevedra) \n**Pop 3:** 833,205 \n**Region 4:** [Province of Lugo](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-lugo) \n**Pop 4:** 300,419 \n**Region 5:** [Province of Ourense](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-ourense) \n**Pop 5:** 272,401 \n**Region 6:** (excluding Galicia) \n**Pop 6:** 355,063 \n**Region 7:** [Diaspora](https://bliptext.com/articles/diaspora) \n**Region 8:** 🇦🇷 [argentina](https://bliptext.com/articles/argentina) \n**Pop 8:** 147,062 \n**Region 9:** 🇻🇪 [venezuela](https://bliptext.com/articles/venezuela) \n**Pop 9:** 38,440–46,882 \n**Region 1 0:** 🇧🇷 [brazil](https://bliptext.com/articles/brazil) \n**Pop 1 0:** 38,554 \n**Region 1 1:** 🇺🇾 [uruguay](https://bliptext.com/articles/uruguay) \n**Pop 1 1:** 35,369 \n**Region 1 2:** 🇨🇺 [cuba](https://bliptext.com/articles/cuba) \n**Pop 1 2:** 31,077 \n**Pop 1 3:** 30,737 \n**Pop 1 4:** 16,075 \n**Pop 1 5:** 14,172 \n**Pop 1 6:** 13,305 \n**Region 1 7:** 🇬🇧 [united kingdom](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-kingdom) \n**Pop 1 7:** 10,755 \n**Pop 1 8:** 9,895 \n**Region 1 9:** Galicians inscribed in the electoral census and living abroad combined (2013) \n**Pop 1 9:** 414,650 \n**Langs:** [Galician](https://bliptext.com/articles/galician-language), [Spanish](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-language) \n**Religions:** [Roman Catholicism](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-church) \n**Related:** [Portuguese](https://bliptext.com/articles/portuguese-people), [Asturians](https://bliptext.com/articles/asturians), [Leonese people](https://bliptext.com/articles/leonese-people), other [Spaniards](https://bliptext.com/articles/spaniards) \n:::\n\n# \n**[Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/galicia-spain)ns** are a [Romance-speaking](https://bliptext.com/articles/romance-speaking) European ethnic group from northwestern Spain; they are closely related to the northern [Portuguese people](https://bliptext.com/articles/portuguese-people) and have their historic homeland in [Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/galicia-spain), in the north-west of the [Iberian Peninsula](https://bliptext.com/articles/iberian-peninsula).\nTwo [Romance languages](https://bliptext.com/articles/romance-languages) are widely spoken and official in Galicia: the native [Galician](https://bliptext.com/articles/galician-language) and [Spanish](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-language).\n\n# Etymology\nThe [ethnonym](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethnonym) of the Galicians (galegos) derives directly from the Latin [Gallaeci](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaeci) or Callaeci, itself an adaptation of the name of a local Celtic tribe known to the Greeks as Καλλαϊκoί (Kallaikoí).\nThey lived in what is now Galicia and northern [Portugal](https://bliptext.com/articles/portugal) and were defeated by the Roman General [Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus](https://bliptext.com/articles/decimus-junius-brutus-callaicus) in the 2nd century BCE and later conquered by [Augustus](https://bliptext.com/articles/augustus).\nThe Romans later applied that name to all the people who shared the same [culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/castro-culture) and [language](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaecian-language) in the north-west, from the [Douro River](https://bliptext.com/articles/douro-river) valley in the south to the [Cantabrian Sea](https://bliptext.com/articles/cantabrian-sea) in the north and west to the [Navia River](https://bliptext.com/articles/navia-river).\nThat encompassed such tribes as the [Celtici](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtici), the [Artabri](https://bliptext.com/articles/artabri), the [Lemavi](https://bliptext.com/articles/lemavi) and the [Albiones](https://bliptext.com/articles/albiones).\nThe oldest known inscription referring to the Gallaeci (reading Ἔθνο[υς] Καλλαικῶ[ν], \"people of the Gallaeci\") was found in 1981 in the [Sebasteion](https://bliptext.com/articles/sebasteion) of Aphrodisias, Turkey; a triumphal monument to Roman Emperor Augustus mentions them among other 15 nations that he conquered.\nThe etymology of the name has been studied since the 7th century by authors such as [Isidore of Seville](https://bliptext.com/articles/isidore-of-seville), who wrote, \"Galicians are called so because of their fair skin, as the Gauls\" and related the name to the Greek word for \"milk,\" γάλα (gála).\nHowever, modern scholars like J.J. Moralejo and Carlos Búa have derived the name of the ancient Callaeci either from [Proto-Indo-European](https://bliptext.com/articles/proto-indo-european) *kl̥(H)‑n‑ 'hill', through a local relational [suffix](https://bliptext.com/articles/suffix) -aik-, also attested in [Celtiberian language](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtiberian-language) and so meaning 'the highlanders'; or either from [Proto-Celtic](https://bliptext.com/articles/proto-celtic) *kallī- 'forest' and so means 'the forest (people)'.\nAnother recent proposal comes from the linguist [Francesco Benozzo](https://bliptext.com/articles/francesco-benozzo), who is not specialized in Celtic languages and identified the root gall- / kall- in a number of Celtic words with the meaning \"stone\" or \"rock\", as follows: gall (old Irish), gal (Middle Welsh), gailleichan (Scottish Gaelic), galagh (Manx) and gall (Gaulish).\nHence, Benozzo explains the name Callaecia and its ethnonym Callaeci as being \"the stone people\" or \"the people of the stone\" (\"those who work with stones\"), in reference to the ancient [megaliths](https://bliptext.com/articles/megalith) and stone formations that are so common in Galicia and Portugal.\nSpecialists of the Celtic languages do not consider there is a hypothetical Gaulish root *gall meaning \"stone\" or \"rock\", but *galiā \"strength\" (> French gaill-ard \"strong\"), related to Old Irish gal \"berserk rage, war fury\", Welsh gallu and Breton galloud \"power\".\nIt is distinct from Gaulish *cal(l)io- \"hoof\" or \"testicle\", related to Welsh caill, Breton kell \"testicle\" (> Gaulish *caliavo > Old French chaillou, French caillou), all from the [Proto-Indo-European](https://bliptext.com/articles/proto-indo-european) root *kal- \"hard hardness\" (perhaps via suffixed zero-grade *kl̥H-no-(m)).\nFor instance, in Latin callum \"hard or thick substance\" is also found and so both E. Rivas and Juan J. Moralejo relate the toponym Gallaecia / Callaecia with the Latin word callus.\n# [Castro culture carved stones | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Selection///of///carvings///from///the///Castro///de///Santa///Trega.jpg]\n\n# Languages\n\n## Galician\nGalician is a [Romance language](https://bliptext.com/articles/romance-language) belonging to the Western Ibero-Romance branch; as such, it derives from [Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin).\nIt has official status in [Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/galicia-iberian-peninsula).\nGalician is also spoken in the neighbouring autonomous communities of [Asturias](https://bliptext.com/articles/asturias) and [Castile and León](https://bliptext.com/articles/castile-and-le-n), near their borders with Galicia.\nMedieval or Old [Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-galicia)n, also known by linguists as [Galician-Portuguese](https://bliptext.com/articles/galician-portuguese), developed locally in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula from [Vulgar Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/vulgar-latin), becoming the language spoken and written in the medieval kingdoms of [Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-galicia) (from 1230 united with the kingdoms of [León](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-le-n) and [Castille](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-castille) under the same sovereign) and [Portugal](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-portugal).\nThe Galician-Portuguese language developed a rich [literary tradition](https://bliptext.com/articles/galician-portuguese-lyric) from the last years of the 12th century.\nDuring the 13th century it gradually replaced Latin as the language used in public and private charters, deeds, and legal documents, in Galicia, Portugal, and in the neighbouring regions in Asturias and Leon.\nGalician-Portuguese diverged into two linguistic varieties – Galician and Portuguese – from the 15th century on.\nGalician became a regional spoken language under the influence of [Castilian Spanish](https://bliptext.com/articles/castilian-spanish), while Portuguese became the international one, as language of the [Portuguese Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/portuguese-empire).\nThe two varieties are still close together, and in particular northern Portuguese dialects share an important number of similarities with Galician ones.\nThe official institution regulating the Galician language, backed by the Galician government and universities, the Royal Galician Academy, claims that modern Galician must be considered an independent Romance language belonging to the group of Ibero-Romance languages and having strong ties with Portuguese and its northern dialects.\nHowever, the [Associaçom Galega da Língua](https://bliptext.com/articles/galician-language-association) (Galician Language Association) and [Academia Galega da Língua Portuguesa](https://bliptext.com/articles/galician-academy-of-the-portuguese-language) (Galician Academy of the Portuguese Language), belonging to the [Reintegrationist](https://bliptext.com/articles/reintegrationist) movement, support the idea that differences between Galician and Portuguese speech are not enough to justify considering them as separate languages: Galician is simply one variety of Galician-Portuguese, along with European Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, African Portuguese, the Galician-Portuguese still spoken in Spanish Extremadura, (Fala), and other variations.\nNowadays, despite the positive effects of official recognition of the Galician language, Galicia's socio-linguistic development has experienced the growing influence of Spanish and persistent linguistic erosion of Galician due to the media as well as legal imposition of Spanish in learning.\nGalicia also boasts a rich oral tradition, in the form of songs, tales, and sayings, which has made a vital contribution to the spread and development of the Galician language.\nStill flourishing today, this tradition shares much with that of Portugal.\n# [A comparative map of Galicia showing speakers of Galician as first language in 2001 and 2011, Galician Institute of Statistics. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Percentage///of///Galician///speakers///%282001///vs///2011%29.png]\n# [La Romería (the pilgrimage), Sorolla, 1915 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Galicia.///La///romer%C3%ADa%2C///por///Joaqu%C3%ADn///Sorolla.jpg]\n\n## Surnames\nGalician surnames, as is the case in most European cultures, can be divided into [patronymic](https://bliptext.com/articles/patronymic) (originally based on one's father's name), [occupational](https://bliptext.com/articles/occupational), [toponymic](https://bliptext.com/articles/toponymic) or [cognominal](https://bliptext.com/articles/nickname).\nThe first group, [patronymic](https://bliptext.com/articles/patronymic) includes many of the most frequent surnames and became fixed during the [Low Middle Ages](https://bliptext.com/articles/low-middle-ages); it includes surnames derived from etyma formed with or without the additions of the [patronymic](https://bliptext.com/articles/patronymic)al suffixes -az, -ez, -iz: [Albert](https://bliptext.com/articles/albert-given-name)e ([Albert](https://bliptext.com/articles/albert-given-name)); [Afonso](https://bliptext.com/articles/afonso) (Alfons); Anes, Oanes, [Yanes](https://bliptext.com/articles/yanes) ([Iohannes](https://bliptext.com/articles/iohannes)); [Arias](https://bliptext.com/articles/arias-surname); [Bernárdez](https://bliptext.com/articles/bern-rdez) ([Bernard](https://bliptext.com/articles/bernard)); [Bermúdez](https://bliptext.com/articles/bermudez-surname) (Medieval Galician Uermues, cf. [Wermuth](https://bliptext.com/articles/wermuth)); Cristobo ([Christopher](https://bliptext.com/articles/christopher)); Diz (from [Didaci](https://bliptext.com/articles/diego-gelm-rez)); [Estévez](https://bliptext.com/articles/est-vez) ([Stephan](https://bliptext.com/articles/stephan-given-name)); [Fernández](https://bliptext.com/articles/fern-ndez); Fiz (from [Felici](https://bliptext.com/articles/felix-name)); [Froiz](https://bliptext.com/articles/froiz), Frois (From [Froila](https://bliptext.com/articles/froila)ci, from the [Gothic](https://bliptext.com/articles/gothic-language) personal name [Froila](https://bliptext.com/articles/froila), \"lord\"); Giance (Latin [Iulianici](https://bliptext.com/articles/julian-given-name)); [González](https://bliptext.com/articles/gonz-lez-surname); [Henríquez](https://bliptext.com/articles/henr-quez) ([Henry](https://bliptext.com/articles/henry-surname)); Martís ([Martin](https://bliptext.com/articles/martin-surname)); [Méndez](https://bliptext.com/articles/m-ndez) ([Menendici](https://bliptext.com/articles/ermengild)); Miguéns, Miguez (from [Michaelici](https://bliptext.com/articles/michael-name), equivalent to [Michaels](https://bliptext.com/articles/michaels-surname)); [Páez](https://bliptext.com/articles/p-ez-surname), Pais, Paz (from Pelagici, [Pelagio](https://bliptext.com/articles/pelagio)); [Ramírez](https://bliptext.com/articles/ram-rez-surname); Reimúndez ([Raymond](https://bliptext.com/articles/raymond)); [Rodríguez](https://bliptext.com/articles/rodr-guez-surname); [Sánchez](https://bliptext.com/articles/s-nchez); Sueiro (from [Suarius](https://bliptext.com/articles/suarius-i)); Tomé (from [Thomas](https://bliptext.com/articles/thomas-surname)); Viéitez, Vieites ([Benedict](https://bliptext.com/articles/benedict-given-name)ici, [Benedict](https://bliptext.com/articles/benedict-given-name)), among many others.\nBecause of the settlement of Galician [colonists](https://bliptext.com/articles/colonist) in southern Spain during the [Reconquista](https://bliptext.com/articles/reconquista), some of the more frequent and distinctively Galician surnames also became popular in Spanish (which had its own related forms) and were taken later into the [Americas](https://bliptext.com/articles/americas), as a consequence of the expansion of the [Spanish empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-empire):\nThe largest surname group is the one derived from toponyms, which usually referred to the place of origin or residence of the bearer.\nThese places can be European countries (as is the case in the surnames [Bretaña](https://bliptext.com/articles/duchy-of-brittany), [Franza](https://bliptext.com/articles/france), [España](https://bliptext.com/articles/spain), [Portugal](https://bliptext.com/articles/portugal)) or nations ([Franco](https://bliptext.com/articles/franco-name), \"[Frenchman](https://bliptext.com/articles/frenchman)\"); Galician regions ([Bergantiños](https://bliptext.com/articles/berganti-os), [Carnota](https://bliptext.com/articles/carnota), Cavarcos, [Sanlés](https://bliptext.com/articles/saln-s)); or cities, towns or villages, which gave origin to a few thousand surnames.\nAnother related group is formed with the [preposition](https://bliptext.com/articles/preposition) de, usually contracted with the definite article as da or do, and a common [appellative](https://bliptext.com/articles/appellative): Dacosta (or [Da Costa](https://bliptext.com/articles/da-costa)), \"of the slope\", Dopazo or Do Pazo (\"of the palace/manor house\"); Doval, \"of the valley\" (cfr. French [Duval](https://bliptext.com/articles/duval)), Daponte (\"of the bridge\"), Davila (\"of the town\", not to be confused with Spanish [Dávila](https://bliptext.com/articles/d-vila)), Daporta (\"of the gate\"); [Dasilva](https://bliptext.com/articles/dasilva) (\"of the forest\"), Dorrío (\"of the river\"), Datorre (\"of the Tower\").\nThrough [rebracketing](https://bliptext.com/articles/rebracketing), some of these surnames gave origin to others such as [Acosta](https://bliptext.com/articles/acosta) or Acuña.\nA few of these toponymic surnames can be considered [nobiliary](https://bliptext.com/articles/nobiliary), as they first appear as the name of some Galician noble houses, later expanding when these nobles began to serve as officials of the [Spanish Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-empire), in Spain or elsewhere, as a way of maintaining them both far from Galicia and useful to the Empire: [Andrade](https://bliptext.com/articles/andrade) (from the house of [Andrade](https://bliptext.com/articles/andrade), itself from the name of a village), [Mejía](https://bliptext.com/articles/mejia-surname) or Mexía (from the house of [Mesía](https://bliptext.com/articles/mes-a)), [Saavedra](https://bliptext.com/articles/saavedra-surname), [Soutomaior](https://bliptext.com/articles/soutomaior) (Hispanicized [Sotomayor](https://bliptext.com/articles/sotomayor)), [Ulloa](https://bliptext.com/articles/ulloa-disambiguation), [Moscoso](https://bliptext.com/articles/moscoso), [Mariñas](https://bliptext.com/articles/g-mez-p-rez-dasmari-as), [Figueroa](https://bliptext.com/articles/figueroa) among others.\nSome of these families also served in Portugal, as the Andrade, Soutomaior or [Lemos](https://bliptext.com/articles/lemos) (who originated in Monforte de [Lemos](https://bliptext.com/articles/lemos)).\nAs a result, these surnames are by now distributed all around the world.\nThe third group of surnames are the occupational ones, derived from the [job](https://bliptext.com/articles/job) or [legal status](https://bliptext.com/articles/legal-status) of the bearer: [Ferreiro](https://bliptext.com/articles/ferreiro) (\"Smith\"), [Carpinteiro](https://bliptext.com/articles/carpinteiro) (\"Carpenter\"), Besteiro (\"Crossbow bearer\"), Crego (\"Priest\"), [Freire](https://bliptext.com/articles/freire) (\"Friar\"), [Faraldo](https://bliptext.com/articles/faraldo) (\"Herald\"), [Pintor](https://bliptext.com/articles/pintor) (\"Painter\"), Pedreiro (\"Stonemason\"), Gaiteiro (\"Bagpiper\"); and also Cabaleiro (\"Knight\"), Escudeiro (\"Esquire\"), [Fidalgo](https://bliptext.com/articles/fidalgo) (\"Nobleman\"), Juiz (\"Judge\").\nThe fourth group includes the surnames derived from nicknames, which can have very diverse motivations:\na) External appearance, as eye colour (Ruso, from Latin roscidus, grey-eyed; Garzo, blue-eyed), hair colour (Dourado, \"Blonde\"; Bermello, \"Red\"; Cerviño, literally \"deer-like\", \"Tawny, Auburn\"; Cao, \"white\"), complexion ([Branco](https://bliptext.com/articles/branco-surname), \"White\"; [Pardo](https://bliptext.com/articles/pardo-surname), \"Swarth\"; [Delgado](https://bliptext.com/articles/delgado), \"Slender\") or other characteristics: Formoso (\"Handsome\"), [Tato](https://bliptext.com/articles/tato-name) (\"Stutterer\"), [Forte](https://bliptext.com/articles/forte-surname) (\"Strong\"), [Calviño](https://bliptext.com/articles/calvi-o) (\"Bald\"), Esquerdeiro (\"Left-handed\").\nb) Temperament and personality: Bonome, Bonhome (\"Goodman\"), Fiúza (\"Who can be trusted\"), Guerreiro (\"Warlike\"), Cordo (\"Judicious\").\nc) Tree names: [Carballo](https://bliptext.com/articles/carballo-name) (\"Oak\"); Amieiro, Ameneiro (\"Alder\"); Freijo (\"Ash tree\").\nd) Animal names: Gerpe (from Serpe, \"Serpent\"); Falcón (\"Falcon\"); Baleato (\"Young Whale\"); [Gato](https://bliptext.com/articles/gato-surname) (\"Cat\"); Coello (\"Rabbit\"); Aguia (\"Eagle\")\ne) Deeds: [Rome](https://bliptext.com/articles/rome)u (a person who pilgrimaged to [Rome](https://bliptext.com/articles/rome) or [the Holy Land](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-holy-land))\nMany Galician surnames have become [Castilianized](https://bliptext.com/articles/castilianization) over the centuries, most notably after the forced submission of the Galician nobility obtained by the [Catholic Monarchs](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-monarchs) in the last years of the 15th century.\nThis reflected the gradual spread of the [Spanish language](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-language) through the cities, in [Santiago de Compostela](https://bliptext.com/articles/santiago-de-compostela), [Lugo](https://bliptext.com/articles/lugo), [A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-coru-a), [Vigo](https://bliptext.com/articles/vigo) and [Ferrol](https://bliptext.com/articles/ferrol-galicia), in the last case due to the establishment of an important base of the [Spanish navy](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-navy) there in the 18th century.\nFor example, surnames like Orxás, Veiga, Outeiro, became Orjales, Vega, Otero.\nToponyms like [Ourense](https://bliptext.com/articles/ourense), [A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-coru-a), [Fisterra](https://bliptext.com/articles/fisterra) became Orense, La Coruña, Finisterre.\nIn many cases this linguistic assimilation created confusion, for example Niño da Aguia (Galician: Eagle's Nest) was translated into Spanish as Niño de la Guía (Spanish: the Guide's child) and Mesón do Bento (Galician: Benedict's house) was translated as Mesón del Viento (Spanish: House of Wind).\n# [Mediaeval Galician inscription in a 14th-century house, in Noia: \"ESTAS CASAS MANDOU FAZER VASCO DACOSTA, ERA DE MCCCLXXVII\" These houses were ordered by Vasco Dacosta, era 1377 (1339 CE) | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Texto///-///Noia///-///Galiza.jpg]\n# [Aqui jaz Fernan Perez d'Andrade (here lies Fernán Pérez de Andrade), 1397 CE | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Betanzos///Igrexia///Monacal///de///San///Francisco///Andrade///O///Boo///56.jpg]\n# [Emilio Estévez and his father Martin Sheen (Ramón Estévez) | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Emilio///Estevez///and///Martin///Sheen.jpg]\n# [French-Spanish actor José Garcia, born Xosé García Doval of Galician parents | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Jos%C3%A9///Garcia///C%C3%A9sar///2018.jpg]\n\n# History\n\n## Prehistory\nThe oldest human occupation of Galicia dates to the [Palaeolithic](https://bliptext.com/articles/palaeolithic), when Galicia was covered by a dense oak [temperate rain forest](https://bliptext.com/articles/temperate-rain-forest).\nThe oldest human remains found, at Chan do Lindeiro, are from a woman who lived some 9,300 years ago and died because of a landslide, apparently while leading a pack of three [aurochs](https://bliptext.com/articles/aurochs); the genetic study of her remains revealed a woman that was an admixture of [Western Hunter-Gatherer](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-hunter-gatherer) and [Magdalenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/magdalenian) people.\nThis type of admixture has been observed in France, also.\nLater on, some 6,500 years ago, a [new population](https://bliptext.com/articles/neolithic-europe) arrived from the [Mediterranean](https://bliptext.com/articles/mediterranean), bringing [agriculture](https://bliptext.com/articles/agriculture) and [husbandry](https://bliptext.com/articles/husbandry) with them.\nHalf of the woodland was razed to pasture and farmland, almost replacing all of the woodland some 5,000 years ago.\nThis new population also changed the landscape with the first permanent human structures, megaliths such as [menhirs](https://bliptext.com/articles/menhirs), [barrows](https://bliptext.com/articles/tumulus) and [cromlechs](https://bliptext.com/articles/cromlech).\nDuring the Neolithic Galicia was one of the foci of [Atlantic European](https://bliptext.com/articles/atlantic-europe) [Megalithic Culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/megalithic-culture), putting in contact the Mediterranean and south [Iberia](https://bliptext.com/articles/iberia) with the rest of Atlantic Europe.\nSome 4,500 years ago a new culture and population arrived and presumingly admixed with the local farmers, the [Bell beaker](https://bliptext.com/articles/bell-beaker-culture) people, coming ultimately from the [Pontic steppe](https://bliptext.com/articles/pontic-steppe), who introduced [copper metallurgy](https://bliptext.com/articles/copper) and [weaponry](https://bliptext.com/articles/weaponry), and probably also new [cultivars](https://bliptext.com/articles/cultivar) and [breeds](https://bliptext.com/articles/breed).\nSome scholars consider that they were the first people to bring [Indo-European languages](https://bliptext.com/articles/indo-european-languages) into Western Europe.\nThey lived in open [villages](https://bliptext.com/articles/villages), only protected by fences or ditches; local archaeologists consider that they caused a very large culture impact, replacing [collectivism](https://bliptext.com/articles/collectivism-and-[individualism](https://bliptext.com/articles/individualism)) with [individualism](https://bliptext.com/articles/individualism), as exemplified by their burial in individual [cists](https://bliptext.com/articles/cist), along with the reuse of old Neolithic tombs.\nFrom this period and later dates a rich tradition of [petroglyphs](https://bliptext.com/articles/petroglyph), which find close similarities in the British Isles, Scandinavia or [northern Italy](https://bliptext.com/articles/rock-drawings-in-valcamonica).\nMotives include [cup and ring marks](https://bliptext.com/articles/cup-and-ring-marks), [labyrinths](https://bliptext.com/articles/labyrinth), Bronze Age weaponry, [deer](https://bliptext.com/articles/deer) and [deer](https://bliptext.com/articles/deer) hunting, warriors, riders and [ships](https://bliptext.com/articles/ship).\nOccasional contacts with Mediterranean navigators, since the last half of the second millennium BCE, became common after the 6th century BCE and the voyage of [Himilco](https://bliptext.com/articles/himilco).\n[Punic](https://bliptext.com/articles/punic) importations from southern Spain became frequent along the coast of southern Galicia, although they didn't penetrate very far to the north or to the interior; also, new decorative motives, as the [six-petal rosettes](https://bliptext.com/articles/six-petal-rosette), are popularized, together with new metallurgical techniques and pieces (ear pendants) and some other innovations as the round hand mill.\nIn exchange, Punics obtained [tin](https://bliptext.com/articles/tin), abundant in the islands and peninsulas of western Galicia (probable origin of the [Cassiterides](https://bliptext.com/articles/cassiterides) island myth) and probably also gold.\nIncidentally, [Avienus](https://bliptext.com/articles/avienius)' [Ora Maritima](https://bliptext.com/articles/ora-maritima) says after [Himilco](https://bliptext.com/articles/himilco) that the [Oestrymni](https://bliptext.com/articles/oestrymnides) (inhabitants of western Iberia) used [hide boats](https://bliptext.com/articles/currach) to navigate, an assertion confirmed by [Pliny the Elder](https://bliptext.com/articles/pliny-the-elder) for the Galicians.\n# [Neolithic dolmen of Dombate, roughly contemporary with Stonehenge. Originally it was under a tumulus covered by stones rich in mica | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Dombate///perfil///2013.jpg]\n\n## Roman conquest\nFirst recorded contact with Rome happened during the [Second Punic War](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-punic-war), when [Gallaecians](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaeci) and [Astures](https://bliptext.com/articles/astures), together with [Lusitanians](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanians), [Cantabrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/cantabrian-stelae) and [Celtiberians](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtiberians) —that is, the major [Indo-European](https://bliptext.com/articles/indo-european-languages) nations of Iberia— figured among the mercenary armies hired by [Hannibal](https://bliptext.com/articles/hannibal) to go with him into Italy.\nAccording to [Silus Italicus](https://bliptext.com/articles/silius-italicus)'s [Punica](https://bliptext.com/articles/punica-poem) III:\nFibrarum, et pennæ, divinarumque sagacem\nFlammarum misit dives Callæcia pubem,\nBarbara nunc patriis ululantem carmina linguis,\nNunc, pedis alterno percussa verbere terra,\nAd numerum resonas gaudentem plaudere cætras.\nHæc requies ludusque viris, ea sacra voluptas.\nCetera femineus peragit labor: addere sulco\nSemina, et inpresso tellurem vertere aratro\nSegne viris: quidquid duro sine Marte gerendum,\nCallaici conjux obit inrequieta mariti.\n\"Opulent Galicia sent her youth, expert in divination through the entrails of beasts, the flight of birds and the divine lightnings; sometimes they delight to chant rude songs in their fatherland's tongues, other times they make the ground tremble with alternative foot while happily clashing their [caetra](https://bliptext.com/articles/caetra) at the same time. This leisure and diversion is a sacred delight for the men, the feminine laboriosity do the rest: adding the seed to the furrow and working the ground with the plough while the men idle. Everything which must be done, with the exception of the hard war, is made restlessly by the wife of the Galician.\"\nHe later also mentions the [Grovii](https://bliptext.com/articles/grovii) of southern Galicia and northwestern Portugal, with their capital [Tui](https://bliptext.com/articles/tui-galicia), apart from the other Galicians; other authors also marked the distinctness of the [Grovii](https://bliptext.com/articles/grovii): Pomponius Mela by addressing that they were non Celtic, unlike the rest of the inhabitants of the coasts of Galicia; Pliny by signalling their Greek origin.\nAfter ending victoriously the [Lusitanian war](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanian-war) with the assassination of [Viriathus](https://bliptext.com/articles/viriathus), consul [Caepio](https://bliptext.com/articles/quintus-servilius-caepio-consul-140-bc) tried to wage war, unsuccessfully, on Gallaecians and [Vettones](https://bliptext.com/articles/vettones), for the help they lent to the Lusitanians.\nIn 138 BCE, another consul, [Decimus Junius Brutus](https://bliptext.com/articles/decimus-junius-brutus-callaicus), in command of two legions, passed de [Douro](https://bliptext.com/articles/douro) river and later the Lethes or Oblivio ([Limia](https://bliptext.com/articles/lima-river), which frightened his troops because of its other [name](https://bliptext.com/articles/river-of-oblivion)), in a successful campaign, managing to conquer many places of the Galicians.\nAfter reaching the [Minho](https://bliptext.com/articles/minho-river) river, and in his way back, he attacked (again successfully) the [Bracari](https://bliptext.com/articles/bracari), who had been harassing his [supply](https://bliptext.com/articles/military-supply-chain-management) chain: [Appian](https://bliptext.com/articles/appian) describe the [Bracari](https://bliptext.com/articles/bracari) women fighting bravely side by side with their men; of the women who were taken prisoners, some killed themselves, and others killed their children, preferring death to servitude.\nThe [spoils of war](https://bliptext.com/articles/looting) allowed Decimus Junius Brutus to celebrate a [triumph](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-triumph) back in Rome, receiving the name Callaicus.\nRecently a very large marching [Roman camp](https://bliptext.com/articles/castra) was discovered at high altitude, in Lomba do Mouro, at the very frontier of Galicia with Portugal.\nIn 2021 a [C-14 dating](https://bliptext.com/articles/c-14-dating) showed that it was built during the 2nd century BCE; since it is north of the Limia, it probably belonged to this campaign.\nThe Roman contact [ha](https://bliptext.com/articles/hectare)d a very large impact on the Castro Culture: an increase in commerce with the south and the Mediterranean; adoption or development of sculpture and stone carving; the [warrior ethos](https://bliptext.com/articles/warrior-ethos) appear to increase in social importance; some hill-forts are built new or rebuilt as true urban centres, [oppida](https://bliptext.com/articles/oppidum), with streets and definite public spaces, as [San Cibrao de Las](https://bliptext.com/articles/castro-of-san-cibrao-de-las) (10 [ha](https://bliptext.com/articles/hectare)) or [Santa Trega](https://bliptext.com/articles/castro-of-santa-trega) (20 [ha](https://bliptext.com/articles/hectare)).\nIn 61 BCE [Julius Caesar](https://bliptext.com/articles/julius-caesar), commanding thirty [cohorts](https://bliptext.com/articles/cohort-military-unit), launched from [Cádiz](https://bliptext.com/articles/c-diz) a maritime campaign along the Atlantic shores which ended in [Brigantium](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-coru-a).\nAccording to [Cassius Dio](https://bliptext.com/articles/cassius-dio), the locals, who had never seen a Roman fleet, surrendered in awe.\nRecent excavations at the Castro de Elviña hillfort, near A Coruña, have found both evidences of siege and partial destruction of the walls of the site, and also of a temple, dated to the middle of the first century BCE.\nFinally, in 29 BCE, [Augustus](https://bliptext.com/articles/augustus) launched a campaign of conquest against Gallaecians, Asturians and Cantabrians.\nThe most memorable episode of this war was the siege on the Mons Medullius, who [Paulus Orosius](https://bliptext.com/articles/paulus-orosius) placed near the [Minho](https://bliptext.com/articles/minho-river) river: it was surrounded by a 15 mille trench before a simultaneous Roman advance; according to [Anneus Florus](https://bliptext.com/articles/anneus-florus) the besieged decided to kill themselves, by fire, sword, or by the venon of the [yew tree](https://bliptext.com/articles/yew-tree).\nTens of Roman camps have been found related to this war, most of them corresponding to the later stages of the war, against Asturians and Cantabrians, some twenty of them in Galicia.\n[Augustus](https://bliptext.com/articles/augustus)' victory over the Gallaecians is celebrated in the [Sebasteion](https://bliptext.com/articles/sebasteion) of Aphrodisias, Turkey, where a triumphal monument to [Augustus](https://bliptext.com/articles/augustus) mentions them among other fifteen nations conquered by him.\nAlso, the [triumphal arch](https://bliptext.com/articles/triumphal-arch) of [Capentras](https://bliptext.com/articles/carpentras) probably represents a Gallaecian among other nations defeated by Augustus.\n# [Guerreiros from northern Portugal, wearing torcs, viriae and caetra. Castro culture. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/MuseuNacArqu-GuerreirosLusitanos.jpg]\n# [Gallaecians vs. Romans. Reenactors in Xinzo de Limia, Festa do Esquecemento | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Batalla///entre///castrexos///e///romanos.jpg]\n\n### Languages and ethnicity\n[Pomponius Mela](https://bliptext.com/articles/pomponius-mela) (a geographer from Tingentera, modern day [Algeciras](https://bliptext.com/articles/algeciras) in Andalusia) described, circa 43 CE, the coasts of northwestern Iberia:\nFrons illa aliquamdiu rectam ripam habet, dein modico flexu accepto mox paululum eminet, tum reducta iterum iterumque recto margine iacens ad promunturium quod Celticum vocamus extenditur.\nTotam Celtici colunt, sed a Durio ad flexum Grovi, fluuntque per eos Avo, Celadus, Nebis, Minius et cui oblivionis cognomen est Limia.\nFlexus ipse Lambriacam urbem amplexus recipit fluvios Laeron et Ullam.\nPartem quae prominet Praesamarchi habitant, perque eos Tamaris et Sars flumina non longe orta decurrunt, Tamaris secundum Ebora portum, Sars iuxta turrem Augusti titulo memorabilem.\nCetera super Tamarici Nerique incolunt in eo tractu ultimi.\nHactenus enim ad occidentem versa litora pertinent.\nDeinde ad septentriones toto latere terra convertitur a Celtico promunturio ad Pyrenaeum usque.\nPerpetua eius ora, nisi ubi modici recessus ac parva promunturia sunt, ad Cantabros paene recta est.\nIn ea primum Artabri sunt etiamnum Celticae gentis, deinde Astyres.\nIn Artabris sinus ore angusto admissum mare non angusto ambitu excipiens Adrobricam urbem et quattuor amnium ostia incingit: duo etiam inter accolentis ignobilia sunt, per alia Ducanaris exit et Libyca\n\"That ocean front for some distance has a straight bank, then, having taken a slight bend, soon protrudes a little bit and then it is drawn back, and again and again; then, lying on a straight line, the coast extends to the promontory which we call Celtic. All of it is inhabited by Celtics, except from the Durio until the bend, where the Grovi dwelt —and through them flow the rivers Avo, Celadus, Nebis, Minius and Limia, also called Oblivio—. On the bend there is the city of Lambriaca and the receding part receives the rivers Laeros and Ulia. The prominent part is inhabited by the Praestamarci, and through them flow the rivers Tamaris and Sars —which are born not afar— Tamaris by harbour Ebora, Sars by the tower of Augustus, of memorable title. For the rest, the Supertamarici and Neri inhabit in the last tract. Up to here what belongs to the western coast. From there all the coast is turned to the north, from the Celtic promontory to the Pyrenees.\nIts regular coast, except where there are small retreats and small headlands, is almost straight by the Cantabrians.\nOn it first of all are the Artabri, still a Celtic people, then the Astures.\nAmong the Artabri there is a bay which lets the sea through a narrow mouth, and encircles, not in a narrow circuit, the city of Adrobrica and the mouth of four rivers.\" The Atlantic and northern coast of today's Galicia was inhabited by Celtic peoples, with the exception of the southern extreme. Others geographers and authors (Pliny, Strabo), as well as the local Latin epigraphy, confirm the presence of Celtic peoples.\nAs for the language or languages spoken by the Galicians previously to their [romanization](https://bliptext.com/articles/romanization-cultural), most scholars usually perceive a primitive [Indo-European](https://bliptext.com/articles/indo-european-languages) layer, another later one hardly distinguishable from Celtic and identifiable with [Lusitanian](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanian-language), most notable in the south, the Gallaecia Bracarense (as a result, [Lusitanian](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanian-language) is sometimes called [Lusitanian](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanian-language)-Gallaecian) and finally Celtic proper; as stated by Alberto J. Lorrio: \"the presence of Celtic elements in the Northwest is indisputable, but there is no unanimity in considering whether there was an only [Indo-European](https://bliptext.com/articles/indo-european-languages) language in the West of Iberia, of Celtic kind, or either a number of languages derived from the arrival of non-Celtic [Indo-European](https://bliptext.com/articles/indo-european-languages)s first, and Celts later on\".\nSome academic positions on this issue:\n# [Geography and peoples of Galicia, after Mela, Pliny and local Latin epigraphy | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Populi///da///Gallaecia.png]\n# [Iberia circa 300 BCE | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Iberia///300BC-en.svg]\n\n## Roman period\nAfter the Roman conquest, the lands and people of northwestern Iberia were divided in three [conventi](https://bliptext.com/articles/conventus-iuridicus) ([Gallaecia Lucensis](https://bliptext.com/articles/conventus-lucensis), [Gallaecia Bracarensis](https://bliptext.com/articles/conventus-bracarensis) and Asturia) and annexed to the province of [Hispania Tarraconensis](https://bliptext.com/articles/hispania-tarraconensis).\nPliny wrote that the Lucenses comprised 16 [populi](https://bliptext.com/articles/people) and 166,000 free heads, and mentions the [Lemavi](https://bliptext.com/articles/lemavi), [Albiones](https://bliptext.com/articles/albiones), [Cibarci](https://bliptext.com/articles/cibarci), Egivarri [Namarini](https://bliptext.com/articles/namarini), Adovi, [Arroni](https://bliptext.com/articles/arroni), Arrotrebae, Celtici Neri, [Celtici Supertamarci](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtici-supertamarici), Copori, [Celtici Praestamarci](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtici-praestamarici), [Cileni](https://bliptext.com/articles/cileni) among them (other authors mention also the Baedui, [Artabri](https://bliptext.com/articles/artabri) and [Seurri](https://bliptext.com/articles/seurri)); the [Astures](https://bliptext.com/articles/astures) comprised 22 [populi](https://bliptext.com/articles/people) and 240,000, of whom the Lougei, Gigurri and Tiburi dwelt lands now in Galicia; finally the Bracarenses 24 [civitates](https://bliptext.com/articles/civitas) and 285,000, of whom the [Grovi](https://bliptext.com/articles/grovii), Helleni, [Querquerni](https://bliptext.com/articles/quaquerni), [Coelerni](https://bliptext.com/articles/coelerni), Bibali, [Limici](https://bliptext.com/articles/limici), Tamacani and [Interamici](https://bliptext.com/articles/interamici) dwelt, at least partially, in modern-day Galicia.\nThe names of some of these peoples have been preserved as the names of regions, parishes and villages: [Lemos](https://bliptext.com/articles/monforte-de-lemos) < Lemavos, Cabarcos, Soneira < *Sub Nerii, Céltigos < Celticos, [Valdeorras](https://bliptext.com/articles/valdeorras) < Valle de Gigurris, [Trives](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-pobra-de-trives) < Tiburis, Támagos < Tamacanos.\nSome other Galician regions derive from some populi or subdivision not listed by the classic authors, among them: Bergantiños < [Briganti](https://bliptext.com/articles/briganti)nos, from [Briganti](https://bliptext.com/articles/briganti), Nendo < Nemetos, from [Nemeton](https://bliptext.com/articles/nemeton), Entíns < Gentinis ('the chieftains').\nA common characteristic of both Gallaecians and western Astures were their onomastic formula and social structure: while most of the other Indo-European peoples of Hispania used a formula such as:\nGallaecians and western Astures used, until the 2nd century of our era, the formula:\nThe known personal names used by locals in northern Gallaecia were largely Celtic: Aio, Alluquius, Ambatus, Ambollus, Andamus, Angetus, Arius, Artius, Atius, Atia, Boutius, Cadroiolo, Caeleo, Caluenus, Camalus, Cambauius, Celtiatus, Cloutaius, Cloutius, Clutamus, Clutosius, Coedus, Coemia, Coroturetis, Eburus, Eburia, Louesus, Medamus, Nantia, Nantius, Reburrus, Secoilia, Seguia, Talauius, Tridia, Vecius, Veroblius, Verotus, Vesuclotus, among others.\nThree [legions](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-legion) were stationed near the [Cantabrian mountains](https://bliptext.com/articles/cantabrian-mountains) after the war, later reduced to the [Legio VII Gemina](https://bliptext.com/articles/legio-vii-gemina) in [León](https://bliptext.com/articles/le-n-spain), with three auxiliary [cohorts](https://bliptext.com/articles/cohort-military-unit) in Galicia (the [Cohors I Celtiberorum](https://bliptext.com/articles/cohors-i-celtiberorum) in Ciadella, [Sobrado dos Monxes](https://bliptext.com/articles/sobrado-dos-monxes), near [Brigantium](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-coru-a); other unity at [Aquis Querquennis](https://bliptext.com/articles/aquis-querquennis), and another one near [Lucus Augusti](https://bliptext.com/articles/lugo)) and others elsewhere.\nSoon Roma began to recruit [auxiliary troops](https://bliptext.com/articles/auxilia) locally: five cohorts of Gallaecians from the conventus Lucenses, other five of bracarenses, two mixed ones of Galicians and Asturians, and an [ala](https://bliptext.com/articles/ala-roman-allied-military-unit) and cohort of Lemavi.\nAlso, Gallaecia and Asturia became the most important producers of gold on the Empire: according to [Pliny](https://bliptext.com/articles/pliny-the-elder) Lusitania, Gallaecia and, especially, Asturia, produced the equivalent to 6,700 kg per year.\nIt has been estimated that the eight hundred Roman gold mines known in Galicia produced in total in between 190,000 and 2,000,000 kg.\nDuring the [Diocletian reforms](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocletian-reforms), late third century, Gallaecia was upgraded to [province](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-province).\n# [Conventi Iuridici (subprovincial divisions) | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Gallaecia-Dioclecianus.png]\n# [Roman works of Montefurado (Pierced Mountain), which diverted the course of the river Sil | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/R%C3%ADo///Sil%2C///Montefurado%2C///Quiroga///06.jpg]\n\n## Germanic era: 5th – 8th centuries\nIn 409 the [Vandals](https://bliptext.com/articles/vandals), [Suebi](https://bliptext.com/articles/suebi) and [Alans](https://bliptext.com/articles/alans), who had entered in the Roman Empire in 405 or 406 [crossing the Rhin](https://bliptext.com/articles/crossing-of-the-rhine), passed into the Iberian Peninsula.\nAfter a year of war and plundering, they were pacified by the offering of lands where to settle.\nThe Roman province of Gallaecia (including Gallaecia proper and the regions of [Asturia](https://bliptext.com/articles/conventus-asturum) and Cantabria) were assigned to the Suebi and the [Hasding Vandals](https://bliptext.com/articles/hasdingi).\nBoth groups clashed soon, in 419, and so the Vandals left to southern Iberia, where they incorporated the last remnants of Alans and [Silingi Vandals](https://bliptext.com/articles/silingi), who had been crushed by Rome in previous years.\nIn 429 the Vandals left for Africa.\nIn 430 a long term conflict broke in between the Suebi and locals who chronicler [Hydatius](https://bliptext.com/articles/hydatius) called gallaecos (i.e. galegos, the endonym of modern-day Galicians) and, initially, plebs (\"folk, common people\"), in contrast with whom he called romani: the rural landowners in Lusitania and the inhabitants of the cities.\nSoon, among those Galicians, appear also local noblemen and churchmen.\nAs the [Britons](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-britons) in southern Great Britain, the Galician were forced to act autonomously from Rome, exercising home rule.\nThey reoccupied old Iron Age hill-forts and built new strongholds and [fortification](https://bliptext.com/articles/fortification) all along Galicia; the largest known today are at Mt. Pindo, Mt. Aloia and at Castro Valente.\nThese fortresses were later used by locals against Visigoths, [Arabs](https://bliptext.com/articles/moors) and [Norsemen](https://bliptext.com/articles/vikings).\nIn this conflict in between Galicians and Suebi, Rome and local bishops acted frequently rather as [intermediaries](https://bliptext.com/articles/intermediary) than as a part, and peace our truce was obtained or warranted with the interchange of prisoners and [hostages](https://bliptext.com/articles/hostage).\nIn 438 both people attained a peace that would last for twenty years; by then old king [Hermeric](https://bliptext.com/articles/hermeric), who had led their people at least since their arrival from [Central Europe](https://bliptext.com/articles/central-europe), ceded the crown to his son [Rechila](https://bliptext.com/articles/rechila), who would expand the kingdom to the south and east, conquering [Emerita Augusta](https://bliptext.com/articles/augusta-emerita), [Mértola](https://bliptext.com/articles/m-rtola) and [Seville](https://bliptext.com/articles/seville), and moving his troops into eastern Hispania, defeating both Roman and [Visigoth](https://bliptext.com/articles/visigoths) armies along the way.\nHis successor and son, [Rechiar](https://bliptext.com/articles/rechiar), converted from [paganism](https://bliptext.com/articles/paganism) to Catholicism upon being crowned, and married a Visigoth princess.\nHe negotiated with Rome a new status for his kingdom and became the first post-Roman Germanic king to mint coins in his name.\nSoon, he tried to expand into the last Roman province in Hispania, [Tarraconense](https://bliptext.com/articles/hispania-tarraconensis); eventually this led to open conflict with Rome and the Visigoths.\nIn 456 a large army of [foederati](https://bliptext.com/articles/foederati) commanded by the kings of the Visigoths and the [Burgundians](https://bliptext.com/articles/burgundians) entered Hispania and defeated the Suebi army near the city of [León](https://bliptext.com/articles/le-n-spain).\nRechiar fled to [Porto](https://bliptext.com/articles/porto), but he was captured and later executed.\nNotwithstanding, the Visigoths left in a hurry the theatre of operation, returning to France.\nThat allowed the Suebi to regroup.\nAfter a period of [petty-kings](https://bliptext.com/articles/petty-kings) rivalry, accompanied by devastation and pillage on Galicians, [Remismund](https://bliptext.com/articles/remismund) was recognized as only and legitimate king by the Suebi, and accepted by the Visigoths; he also promoted the [Arianism](https://bliptext.com/articles/arianism) among the Suebi.\nAs result, the Suebi kingdom came to its limits, encompassing modern day Galicia, northern Portugal until [Coimbra](https://bliptext.com/articles/coimbra), and large parts of [Asturias](https://bliptext.com/articles/asturias), [León](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-le-n) and [Zamora](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-zamora).\nThe chronicle of Hydatius also records naval raids of both Vandals and [Heruli](https://bliptext.com/articles/heruli) on the Galician coasts during the 5th century.\n\n## Medieval era\nIn 718 the area briefly came under the control of the Moors after their conquest and dismantling of the Visigothic Empire, but the Galicians successfully rebelled against Moorish rule in 739, establishing a renewed [Kingdom of Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-galicia) which would become totally stable after 813 with the medieval popularization of the [\"Way of St James\"](https://bliptext.com/articles/camino-de-santiago).\n\n# Geography and demographics\n# [Galician bagpipers in New York. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Casa///Galicia///pipers///Pat///day///67///jeh.jpg]\n\n## Political and administrative divisions\nThe autonomous community, a concept established in the [Spanish constitution](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-constitution) of 1978, that is known as (a) Comunidade Autónoma Galega in Galician, and as (la) Comunidad Autónoma Gallega in Spanish (in English: Galician Autonomous Community), is composed of the four Spanish provinces of [A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-a-coru-a), [Lugo](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-lugo), [Ourense](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-ourense), and [Pontevedra](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-pontevedra).\n\n## Population, main cities and languages\nThe official statistical body of Galicia is the Instituto Galego de Estatística (IGE).\nAccording to the IGE, Galicia's total population in 2008 was 2,783,100 (1,138,474 in [A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-a-coru-a), 355.406 in [Lugo](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-lugo), 336.002 in [Ourense](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-ourense), and 953.218 in [Pontevedra](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-pontevedra) ).\nThe most important cities in this region, which serve as the provinces' administrative centres, are [Vigo](https://bliptext.com/articles/vigo) (in [Pontevedra](https://bliptext.com/articles/pontevedra)), [Pontevedra](https://bliptext.com/articles/pontevedra), [Santiago de Compostela](https://bliptext.com/articles/santiago-de-compostela), [A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-coru-a), [Ferrol](https://bliptext.com/articles/ferrol-spain) (in [A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-coru-a)), [Lugo](https://bliptext.com/articles/lugo) (in [Lugo](https://bliptext.com/articles/lugo)), and [Ourense](https://bliptext.com/articles/ourense) (in [Ourense](https://bliptext.com/articles/ourense)).\nThe official languages are Galician and Spanish.\nKnowledge of Spanish is compulsory according to the Spanish constitution and virtually universal.\nKnowledge of Galician, after declining for many years owing to the pressure of Spanish and official persecution, is again on the rise due to favorable official language policies and popular support.\nCurrently about 82% of Galicia's population can speak Galician and about 61% have it as a mother tongue.\n\n# Culture\n\n## Celtic revival and Celtic identity\nIn the 19th century a group of [Romantic](https://bliptext.com/articles/romanticism) and [Nationalist](https://bliptext.com/articles/nationalism) writers and scholars, among them [Eduardo Pondal](https://bliptext.com/articles/eduardo-pondal) and [Manuel Murguía](https://bliptext.com/articles/manuel-murgu-a), led a [Celtic revival](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-revival) initially based on the historical testimonies of ancient Roman and Greek authors ([Pomponius Mela](https://bliptext.com/articles/pomponius-mela), [Pliny the Elder](https://bliptext.com/articles/pliny-the-elder), [Strabo](https://bliptext.com/articles/strabo) and [Ptolemy](https://bliptext.com/articles/ptolemy)), who wrote about the [Celtic](https://bliptext.com/articles/celts) peoples who inhabited Galicia; but they also based this revival in [linguistic](https://bliptext.com/articles/list-of-galician-words-of-celtic-origin) and [onomastic](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-place-names-in-galicia) data, and in the similarity of some aspects of the culture and the geography of Galicia with that of the [Celtic](https://bliptext.com/articles/celts) countries as Ireland, [Brittany](https://bliptext.com/articles/brittany) and Britain, as well as in the Bronze and Iron Age archaeological cultures.\nThese similarities included legends and traditions, and decorative and popular arts and [music](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-music).\nIt also included the green hilly landscape and the ubiquity of Iron Age [hill-forts](https://bliptext.com/articles/hill-fort), Neolithic [megaliths](https://bliptext.com/articles/megaliths) and Bronze Age [cup and ring marks](https://bliptext.com/articles/cup-and-ring-marks), which were and are popularly seen as \"Celtic\", also among foreigners who travelled to Galicia.\nAs a Celtic region of Spain, Galicia has a tartan called Galicia National.\nDuring the late 19th and early 20th century this revival permeated Galician society: in 1916 [Os Pinos](https://bliptext.com/articles/os-pinos), a poem by Eduardo Pondal, was chosen as the lyrics for the new Galician hymn.\nOne of the strophes of the poem says: Galicians, be strong / ready to great deeds / align your breast / for a glorious end / sons of the noble Celts / strong and traveller / fight for the fate / of the homeland of [Breogán](https://bliptext.com/articles/breog-n).\nThe Celtic past became an integral part of the self-perceived Galician identity: as a result an important number of cultural association and sport clubs received names related to the Celts, among them [Celta de Vigo](https://bliptext.com/articles/celta-de-vigo), [Céltiga FC](https://bliptext.com/articles/c-ltiga-fc), [CB Breogán](https://bliptext.com/articles/cb-breog-n), etc.\nFrom the 1970s on a series of Celtic music and cultural festivals were also popularized, the most notable being the Festival Internacional do Mundo Celta de [Ortigueira](https://bliptext.com/articles/ortigueira), at the same time that Galician folk musical bands and interpreters became usual participants in Celtic festivals elsewhere, as in the Interceltic festival of Lorient, where Galicia sent its first delegation in 1976.\n# [Galician pipe band Dambara at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient, 2012 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/FIL///2012///-///Arriv%C3%A9e///de///la///grande///parade///des///nations///celtes///-///Banda///de///gaitas///Dambara.jpg]\n# [Galician Celtic Revival: Homes de Brigantia ('Men of Brigantia'), by Camilo Díaz Baliño (1922) | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/E///tras///de///xurdia///loita///os///homes///de///Brigantia///reconqueriron///o///Santo///Grial///ceibe///e///grorioso.jpg]\n\n## Folklore and traditions\n# [Winged serpent of Gondomil, Portugal. The Christian cross is a latter addition | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Pedra///da///serpe///de///Gondomil.png]\n\n### Myths and legends\nGalician [folklore](https://bliptext.com/articles/folklore) is similar to that of the rest of western [Europe](https://bliptext.com/articles/european-folklore), especially to that or northern [Portugal](https://bliptext.com/articles/portugal), [Asturias](https://bliptext.com/articles/asturias) and [Cantabria](https://bliptext.com/articles/cantabria).\nAmong its most notorious [myths](https://bliptext.com/articles/myths) are the following:\n# [Fornela dos Mouros ('Mouros' oven') dolmen | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Dolmen///da///Fornela///dos///Mouros.jpg]\n# [Pico Sagro, where a dragon dwelt | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Pico///Sacro.jpg]\n# [Maruxaina | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Escultura///A///Maruxaina.001///-///San///Cibrao///%28Cervo%29.jpg]\n# [1920's advertising and the Santa Compaña | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Anuncio///M///Sancho///por///Camilo///D%C3%ADaz///Bali%C3%B1o.jpg]\n# [Santa Compaña (modern graffiti) | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Santa///Compa%C3%B1a///Pontevedra///01-01b.jpg]\n\n### Traditions and beliefs\nWhile Galicia was traditionally a profoundly [Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-church) society, in its beliefs there are many remnants of previous religious systems, in particular the belief on a pantheon of gods, now [saints](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint); in the reincarnation in form of an animal, when there are unfinished business; the [evil eye](https://bliptext.com/articles/evil-eye) and the sickness caused by [curses](https://bliptext.com/articles/curse); the holiness of crossroads and fountains, etcetera.\nThe first attestation of the beliefs of the Galicians in a Christian context is offered by the [Pannonian](https://bliptext.com/articles/pannonian-basin) [Martin of Braga](https://bliptext.com/articles/martin-of-braga) who in his letter De Correctione Rusticorum condemns, among others, the belief in the Roman gods or in the [lamias](https://bliptext.com/articles/lamia), [nymphs](https://bliptext.com/articles/nymph) and [dianas](https://bliptext.com/articles/diana-mythology), and also in practices as putting candles to trees, springs and crossroads.\n\n### Popular feasts\nAside from Catholic feasts and celebrations, there are other annual celebrations of [pagan](https://bliptext.com/articles/paganism) or mixed origin:\n\n### Traditional costume\nTraditional Galician costume, as understood today, got conformed fundamentally during the second half of the 18th century.\nNotwithstanding, some very characteristic elements, as the monteira (an embroidered felt hat), [breeches](https://bliptext.com/articles/breeches) and [jacket](https://bliptext.com/articles/jacket) are already present in 16th century depictions.\nAlthough there are some regional variance, males attire is generally composed of monteira and sometimes pano (headcloth), camisa ([shirt](https://bliptext.com/articles/shirt)), chaleco ([vest](https://bliptext.com/articles/vest)), chaqueta (jacket), faixa ([sash](https://bliptext.com/articles/sash)), calzón (breeches), cirolas ([underwear](https://bliptext.com/articles/underwear)), polainas ([gaiters](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaiter), [spats](https://bliptext.com/articles/spats-footwear)) and zocas, zocos'' ([clogs](https://bliptext.com/articles/clogs) or [boots](https://bliptext.com/articles/boot)).\n\n### Traditional music\nThe most characteristic instrument in traditional music is probably the [gaita](https://bliptext.com/articles/galician-gaita) (bagpipe).\nThe gaita have a conical double-reed chanter, and usually have one to four drones.\nThe bag is usually inflated through a blowpipe, but in the gaita de barquín it is inflated by the operation of a bellows.\nIn the past the gaita was usually accompanied just by tamboril ([snare drum](https://bliptext.com/articles/snare-drum)) and bombo or caixa ([bass drum](https://bliptext.com/articles/bass-drum)), but since the middle of the twentieth century the groups and bands have become very popular.\nPieces which are usually interpreted with gaita are the [muiñeira](https://bliptext.com/articles/mui-eira), often in time and very similar to Irish [jigs](https://bliptext.com/articles/jig); the alborada, played during the early mornings of holydays; the marcha (march) which accompanies processions and retinues.\nSome renowned compositions are the 19th century Muiñeira de Chantada and the traditional Aires de Pontevedra (an alborada) and Marcha do Antigo Reino de Galicia (March of the Old Kingdom of Galicia).\nAnother very representative instrument is the pandeireta ([tambourine](https://bliptext.com/articles/tambourine)), which along or together with other drums as the [pandeiro](https://bliptext.com/articles/adufe), [castanets](https://bliptext.com/articles/castanets), etc., usually accompanied the songs and celebrations of the working women and men during the seráns (evenings), foliadas or fiadas.\nOther genres include de alalá, which can be sung [a cappella](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-cappella), or the cancións de cego (blindman's songs), interpreted with [violin](https://bliptext.com/articles/violin) of [zanfoña](https://bliptext.com/articles/hurdy-gurdy).\n\n## Literature\n\n## Painting, plastic arts and architecture\n\n## Science\n\n## Music\n\n## Sport\n\n## Cinema and TV\n\n# People of Galician origin","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-26T07:15:57.763Z","updated_at":"2025-01-26T07:15:57.763Z","search_vector":"'galician':1","search_content":" \n \n**Group:** Galicians · Galegos \n**Population:** c. 3.2 million** · Map of the Galician Diaspora in the World.svg \n**Popplace:** 2,752,676 \n**Region 1:** [Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/undefined) 2,397,613 \n**Pop 1:** 2,397,613 \n**Region 2:** [Province of A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-a-coru-a) \n**Pop 2:** 991,588 \n**Region 3:** [Province of Pontevedra](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-pontevedra) \n**Pop 3:** 833,205 \n**Region 4:** [Province of Lugo](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-lugo) \n**Pop 4:** 300,419 \n**Region 5:** [Province of Ourense](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-ourense) \n**Pop 5:** 272,401 \n**Region 6:** (excluding Galicia) \n**Pop 6:** 355,063 \n**Region 7:** [Diaspora](https://bliptext.com/articles/diaspora) \n**Region 8:** 🇦🇷 [argentina](https://bliptext.com/articles/argentina) \n**Pop 8:** 147,062 \n**Region 9:** 🇻🇪 [venezuela](https://bliptext.com/articles/venezuela) \n**Pop 9:** 38,440–46,882 \n**Region 1 0:** 🇧🇷 [brazil](https://bliptext.com/articles/brazil) \n**Pop 1 0:** 38,554 \n**Region 1 1:** 🇺🇾 [uruguay](https://bliptext.com/articles/uruguay) \n**Pop 1 1:** 35,369 \n**Region 1 2:** 🇨🇺 [cuba](https://bliptext.com/articles/cuba) \n**Pop 1 2:** 31,077 \n**Pop 1 3:** 30,737 \n**Pop 1 4:** 16,075 \n**Pop 1 5:** 14,172 \n**Pop 1 6:** 13,305 \n**Region 1 7:** 🇬🇧 [united kingdom](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-kingdom) \n**Pop 1 7:** 10,755 \n**Pop 1 8:** 9,895 \n**Region 1 9:** Galicians inscribed in the electoral census and living abroad combined (2013) \n**Pop 1 9:** 414,650 \n**Langs:** [Galician](https://bliptext.com/articles/galician-language), [Spanish](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-language) \n**Religions:** [Roman Catholicism](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-church) \n**Related:** [Portuguese](https://bliptext.com/articles/portuguese-people), [Asturians](https://bliptext.com/articles/asturians), [Leonese people](https://bliptext.com/articles/leonese-people), other [Spaniards](https://bliptext.com/articles/spaniards) \n \n\n# \n**[Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/galicia-spain)ns** are a [Romance-speaking](https://bliptext.com/articles/romance-speaking) European ethnic group from northwestern Spain; they are closely related to the northern [Portuguese people](https://bliptext.com/articles/portuguese-people) and have their historic homeland in [Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/galicia-spain), in the north-west of the [Iberian Peninsula](https://bliptext.com/articles/iberian-peninsula).\nTwo [Romance languages](https://bliptext.com/articles/romance-languages) are widely spoken and official in Galicia: the native [Galician](https://bliptext.com/articles/galician-language) and [Spanish](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-language).\n\n# Etymology\nThe [ethnonym](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethnonym) of the Galicians (galegos) derives directly from the Latin [Gallaeci](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaeci) or Callaeci, itself an adaptation of the name of a local Celtic tribe known to the Greeks as Καλλαϊκoί (Kallaikoí).\nThey lived in what is now Galicia and northern [Portugal](https://bliptext.com/articles/portugal) and were defeated by the Roman General [Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus](https://bliptext.com/articles/decimus-junius-brutus-callaicus) in the 2nd century BCE and later conquered by [Augustus](https://bliptext.com/articles/augustus).\nThe Romans later applied that name to all the people who shared the same [culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/castro-culture) and [language](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaecian-language) in the north-west, from the [Douro River](https://bliptext.com/articles/douro-river) valley in the south to the [Cantabrian Sea](https://bliptext.com/articles/cantabrian-sea) in the north and west to the [Navia River](https://bliptext.com/articles/navia-river).\nThat encompassed such tribes as the [Celtici](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtici), the [Artabri](https://bliptext.com/articles/artabri), the [Lemavi](https://bliptext.com/articles/lemavi) and the [Albiones](https://bliptext.com/articles/albiones).\nThe oldest known inscription referring to the Gallaeci (reading Ἔθνο[υς] Καλλαικῶ[ν], \"people of the Gallaeci\") was found in 1981 in the [Sebasteion](https://bliptext.com/articles/sebasteion) of Aphrodisias, Turkey; a triumphal monument to Roman Emperor Augustus mentions them among other 15 nations that he conquered.\nThe etymology of the name has been studied since the 7th century by authors such as [Isidore of Seville](https://bliptext.com/articles/isidore-of-seville), who wrote, \"Galicians are called so because of their fair skin, as the Gauls\" and related the name to the Greek word for \"milk,\" γάλα (gála).\nHowever, modern scholars like J.J. Moralejo and Carlos Búa have derived the name of the ancient Callaeci either from [Proto-Indo-European](https://bliptext.com/articles/proto-indo-european) *kl̥(H)‑n‑ 'hill', through a local relational [suffix](https://bliptext.com/articles/suffix) -aik-, also attested in [Celtiberian language](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtiberian-language) and so meaning 'the highlanders'; or either from [Proto-Celtic](https://bliptext.com/articles/proto-celtic) *kallī- 'forest' and so means 'the forest (people)'.\nAnother recent proposal comes from the linguist [Francesco Benozzo](https://bliptext.com/articles/francesco-benozzo), who is not specialized in Celtic languages and identified the root gall- / kall- in a number of Celtic words with the meaning \"stone\" or \"rock\", as follows: gall (old Irish), gal (Middle Welsh), gailleichan (Scottish Gaelic), galagh (Manx) and gall (Gaulish).\nHence, Benozzo explains the name Callaecia and its ethnonym Callaeci as being \"the stone people\" or \"the people of the stone\" (\"those who work with stones\"), in reference to the ancient [megaliths](https://bliptext.com/articles/megalith) and stone formations that are so common in Galicia and Portugal.\nSpecialists of the Celtic languages do not consider there is a hypothetical Gaulish root *gall meaning \"stone\" or \"rock\", but *galiā \"strength\" (> French gaill-ard \"strong\"), related to Old Irish gal \"berserk rage, war fury\", Welsh gallu and Breton galloud \"power\".\nIt is distinct from Gaulish *cal(l)io- \"hoof\" or \"testicle\", related to Welsh caill, Breton kell \"testicle\" (> Gaulish *caliavo > Old French chaillou, French caillou), all from the [Proto-Indo-European](https://bliptext.com/articles/proto-indo-european) root *kal- \"hard hardness\" (perhaps via suffixed zero-grade *kl̥H-no-(m)).\nFor instance, in Latin callum \"hard or thick substance\" is also found and so both E. Rivas and Juan J. Moralejo relate the toponym Gallaecia / Callaecia with the Latin word callus.\n# [Castro culture carved stones | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Selection///of///carvings///from///the///Castro///de///Santa///Trega.jpg]\n\n# Languages\n\n## Galician\nGalician is a [Romance language](https://bliptext.com/articles/romance-language) belonging to the Western Ibero-Romance branch; as such, it derives from [Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin).\nIt has official status in [Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/galicia-iberian-peninsula).\nGalician is also spoken in the neighbouring autonomous communities of [Asturias](https://bliptext.com/articles/asturias) and [Castile and León](https://bliptext.com/articles/castile-and-le-n), near their borders with Galicia.\nMedieval or Old [Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-galicia)n, also known by linguists as [[Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-galicia)n-Portuguese](https://bliptext.com/articles/galician-portuguese), developed locally in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula from [Vulgar Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/vulgar-latin), becoming the language spoken and written in the medieval kingdoms of [Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-galicia) (from 1230 united with the kingdoms of [León](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-le-n) and [Castille](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-castille) under the same sovereign) and [Portugal](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-portugal).\nThe Galician-Portuguese language developed a rich [literary tradition](https://bliptext.com/articles/galician-portuguese-lyric) from the last years of the 12th century.\nDuring the 13th century it gradually replaced Latin as the language used in public and private charters, deeds, and legal documents, in Galicia, Portugal, and in the neighbouring regions in Asturias and Leon.\nGalician-Portuguese diverged into two linguistic varieties – Galician and Portuguese – from the 15th century on.\nGalician became a regional spoken language under the influence of [Castilian Spanish](https://bliptext.com/articles/castilian-spanish), while Portuguese became the international one, as language of the [Portuguese Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/portuguese-empire).\nThe two varieties are still close together, and in particular northern Portuguese dialects share an important number of similarities with Galician ones.\nThe official institution regulating the Galician language, backed by the Galician government and universities, the Royal Galician Academy, claims that modern Galician must be considered an independent Romance language belonging to the group of Ibero-Romance languages and having strong ties with Portuguese and its northern dialects.\nHowever, the [Associaçom Galega da Língua](https://bliptext.com/articles/galician-language-association) (Galician Language Association) and [Academia Galega da Língua Portuguesa](https://bliptext.com/articles/galician-academy-of-the-portuguese-language) (Galician Academy of the Portuguese Language), belonging to the [Reintegrationist](https://bliptext.com/articles/reintegrationist) movement, support the idea that differences between Galician and Portuguese speech are not enough to justify considering them as separate languages: Galician is simply one variety of Galician-Portuguese, along with European Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, African Portuguese, the Galician-Portuguese still spoken in Spanish Extremadura, (Fala), and other variations.\nNowadays, despite the positive effects of official recognition of the Galician language, Galicia's socio-linguistic development has experienced the growing influence of Spanish and persistent linguistic erosion of Galician due to the media as well as legal imposition of Spanish in learning.\nGalicia also boasts a rich oral tradition, in the form of songs, tales, and sayings, which has made a vital contribution to the spread and development of the Galician language.\nStill flourishing today, this tradition shares much with that of Portugal.\n# [A comparative map of Galicia showing speakers of Galician as first language in 2001 and 2011, Galician Institute of Statistics. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Percentage///of///Galician///speakers///%282001///vs///2011%29.png]\n# [La Romería (the pilgrimage), Sorolla, 1915 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Galicia.///La///romer%C3%ADa%2C///por///Joaqu%C3%ADn///Sorolla.jpg]\n\n## Surnames\nGalician surnames, as is the case in most European cultures, can be divided into [patronymic](https://bliptext.com/articles/patronymic) (originally based on one's father's name), [occupational](https://bliptext.com/articles/occupational), [toponymic](https://bliptext.com/articles/toponymic) or [cognominal](https://bliptext.com/articles/nickname).\nThe first group, [patronymic](https://bliptext.com/articles/patronymic) includes many of the most frequent surnames and became fixed during the [Low Middle Ages](https://bliptext.com/articles/low-middle-ages); it includes surnames derived from etyma formed with or without the additions of the [patronymic](https://bliptext.com/articles/patronymic)al suffixes -az, -ez, -iz: [Albert](https://bliptext.com/articles/albert-given-name)e ([Albert](https://bliptext.com/articles/albert-given-name)); [Afonso](https://bliptext.com/articles/afonso) (Alfons); Anes, Oanes, [Yanes](https://bliptext.com/articles/yanes) ([Iohannes](https://bliptext.com/articles/iohannes)); [Arias](https://bliptext.com/articles/arias-surname); [Bernárdez](https://bliptext.com/articles/bern-rdez) ([Bernard](https://bliptext.com/articles/bernard)); [Bermúdez](https://bliptext.com/articles/bermudez-surname) (Medieval Galician Uermues, cf. [Wermuth](https://bliptext.com/articles/wermuth)); Cristobo ([Christopher](https://bliptext.com/articles/christopher)); Diz (from [Didaci](https://bliptext.com/articles/diego-gelm-rez)); [Estévez](https://bliptext.com/articles/est-vez) ([Stephan](https://bliptext.com/articles/stephan-given-name)); [Fernández](https://bliptext.com/articles/fern-ndez); Fiz (from [Felici](https://bliptext.com/articles/felix-name)); [Froiz](https://bliptext.com/articles/froiz), Frois (From [Froila](https://bliptext.com/articles/froila)ci, from the [Gothic](https://bliptext.com/articles/gothic-language) personal name [Froila](https://bliptext.com/articles/froila), \"lord\"); Giance (Latin [Iulianici](https://bliptext.com/articles/julian-given-name)); [González](https://bliptext.com/articles/gonz-lez-surname); [Henríquez](https://bliptext.com/articles/henr-quez) ([Henry](https://bliptext.com/articles/henry-surname)); Martís ([Martin](https://bliptext.com/articles/martin-surname)); [Méndez](https://bliptext.com/articles/m-ndez) ([Menendici](https://bliptext.com/articles/ermengild)); Miguéns, Miguez (from [Michaelici](https://bliptext.com/articles/michael-name), equivalent to [Michaels](https://bliptext.com/articles/michaels-surname)); [Páez](https://bliptext.com/articles/p-ez-surname), Pais, Paz (from Pelagici, [Pelagio](https://bliptext.com/articles/pelagio)); [Ramírez](https://bliptext.com/articles/ram-rez-surname); Reimúndez ([Raymond](https://bliptext.com/articles/raymond)); [Rodríguez](https://bliptext.com/articles/rodr-guez-surname); [Sánchez](https://bliptext.com/articles/s-nchez); Sueiro (from [Suarius](https://bliptext.com/articles/suarius-i)); Tomé (from [Thomas](https://bliptext.com/articles/thomas-surname)); Viéitez, Vieites ([Benedict](https://bliptext.com/articles/benedict-given-name)ici, [Benedict](https://bliptext.com/articles/benedict-given-name)), among many others.\nBecause of the settlement of Galician [colonists](https://bliptext.com/articles/colonist) in southern Spain during the [Reconquista](https://bliptext.com/articles/reconquista), some of the more frequent and distinctively Galician surnames also became popular in Spanish (which had its own related forms) and were taken later into the [Americas](https://bliptext.com/articles/americas), as a consequence of the expansion of the [Spanish empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-empire):\nThe largest surname group is the one derived from toponyms, which usually referred to the place of origin or residence of the bearer.\nThese places can be European countries (as is the case in the surnames [Bretaña](https://bliptext.com/articles/duchy-of-brittany), [Franza](https://bliptext.com/articles/france), [España](https://bliptext.com/articles/spain), [Portugal](https://bliptext.com/articles/portugal)) or nations ([Franco](https://bliptext.com/articles/franco-name), \"[Frenchman](https://bliptext.com/articles/frenchman)\"); Galician regions ([Bergantiños](https://bliptext.com/articles/berganti-os), [Carnota](https://bliptext.com/articles/carnota), Cavarcos, [Sanlés](https://bliptext.com/articles/saln-s)); or cities, towns or villages, which gave origin to a few thousand surnames.\nAnother related group is formed with the [preposition](https://bliptext.com/articles/preposition) de, usually contracted with the definite article as da or do, and a common [appellative](https://bliptext.com/articles/appellative): Dacosta (or [Da Costa](https://bliptext.com/articles/da-costa)), \"of the slope\", Dopazo or Do Pazo (\"of the palace/manor house\"); Doval, \"of the valley\" (cfr. French [Duval](https://bliptext.com/articles/duval)), Daponte (\"of the bridge\"), Davila (\"of the town\", not to be confused with Spanish [Dávila](https://bliptext.com/articles/d-vila)), Daporta (\"of the gate\"); [Dasilva](https://bliptext.com/articles/dasilva) (\"of the forest\"), Dorrío (\"of the river\"), Datorre (\"of the Tower\").\nThrough [rebracketing](https://bliptext.com/articles/rebracketing), some of these surnames gave origin to others such as [Acosta](https://bliptext.com/articles/acosta) or Acuña.\nA few of these toponymic surnames can be considered [nobiliary](https://bliptext.com/articles/nobiliary), as they first appear as the name of some Galician noble houses, later expanding when these nobles began to serve as officials of the [Spanish Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-empire), in Spain or elsewhere, as a way of maintaining them both far from Galicia and useful to the Empire: [Andrade](https://bliptext.com/articles/andrade) (from the house of [Andrade](https://bliptext.com/articles/andrade), itself from the name of a village), [Mejía](https://bliptext.com/articles/mejia-surname) or Mexía (from the house of [Mesía](https://bliptext.com/articles/mes-a)), [Saavedra](https://bliptext.com/articles/saavedra-surname), [Soutomaior](https://bliptext.com/articles/soutomaior) (Hispanicized [Sotomayor](https://bliptext.com/articles/sotomayor)), [Ulloa](https://bliptext.com/articles/ulloa-disambiguation), [Moscoso](https://bliptext.com/articles/moscoso), [Mariñas](https://bliptext.com/articles/g-mez-p-rez-dasmari-as), [Figueroa](https://bliptext.com/articles/figueroa) among others.\nSome of these families also served in Portugal, as the Andrade, Soutomaior or [Lemos](https://bliptext.com/articles/lemos) (who originated in Monforte de [Lemos](https://bliptext.com/articles/lemos)).\nAs a result, these surnames are by now distributed all around the world.\nThe third group of surnames are the occupational ones, derived from the [job](https://bliptext.com/articles/job) or [legal status](https://bliptext.com/articles/legal-status) of the bearer: [Ferreiro](https://bliptext.com/articles/ferreiro) (\"Smith\"), [Carpinteiro](https://bliptext.com/articles/carpinteiro) (\"Carpenter\"), Besteiro (\"Crossbow bearer\"), Crego (\"Priest\"), [Freire](https://bliptext.com/articles/freire) (\"Friar\"), [Faraldo](https://bliptext.com/articles/faraldo) (\"Herald\"), [Pintor](https://bliptext.com/articles/pintor) (\"Painter\"), Pedreiro (\"Stonemason\"), Gaiteiro (\"Bagpiper\"); and also Cabaleiro (\"Knight\"), Escudeiro (\"Esquire\"), [Fidalgo](https://bliptext.com/articles/fidalgo) (\"Nobleman\"), Juiz (\"Judge\").\nThe fourth group includes the surnames derived from nicknames, which can have very diverse motivations:\na) External appearance, as eye colour (Ruso, from Latin roscidus, grey-eyed; Garzo, blue-eyed), hair colour (Dourado, \"Blonde\"; Bermello, \"Red\"; Cerviño, literally \"deer-like\", \"Tawny, Auburn\"; Cao, \"white\"), complexion ([Branco](https://bliptext.com/articles/branco-surname), \"White\"; [Pardo](https://bliptext.com/articles/pardo-surname), \"Swarth\"; [Delgado](https://bliptext.com/articles/delgado), \"Slender\") or other characteristics: Formoso (\"Handsome\"), [Tato](https://bliptext.com/articles/tato-name) (\"Stutterer\"), [Forte](https://bliptext.com/articles/forte-surname) (\"Strong\"), [Calviño](https://bliptext.com/articles/calvi-o) (\"Bald\"), Esquerdeiro (\"Left-handed\").\nb) Temperament and personality: Bonome, Bonhome (\"Goodman\"), Fiúza (\"Who can be trusted\"), Guerreiro (\"Warlike\"), Cordo (\"Judicious\").\nc) Tree names: [Carballo](https://bliptext.com/articles/carballo-name) (\"Oak\"); Amieiro, Ameneiro (\"Alder\"); Freijo (\"Ash tree\").\nd) Animal names: Gerpe (from Serpe, \"Serpent\"); Falcón (\"Falcon\"); Baleato (\"Young Whale\"); [Gato](https://bliptext.com/articles/gato-surname) (\"Cat\"); Coello (\"Rabbit\"); Aguia (\"Eagle\")\ne) Deeds: [Rome](https://bliptext.com/articles/rome)u (a person who pilgrimaged to [Rome](https://bliptext.com/articles/rome) or [the Holy Land](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-holy-land))\nMany Galician surnames have become [Castilianized](https://bliptext.com/articles/castilianization) over the centuries, most notably after the forced submission of the Galician nobility obtained by the [Catholic Monarchs](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-monarchs) in the last years of the 15th century.\nThis reflected the gradual spread of the [Spanish language](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-language) through the cities, in [Santiago de Compostela](https://bliptext.com/articles/santiago-de-compostela), [Lugo](https://bliptext.com/articles/lugo), [A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-coru-a), [Vigo](https://bliptext.com/articles/vigo) and [Ferrol](https://bliptext.com/articles/ferrol-galicia), in the last case due to the establishment of an important base of the [Spanish navy](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-navy) there in the 18th century.\nFor example, surnames like Orxás, Veiga, Outeiro, became Orjales, Vega, Otero.\nToponyms like [Ourense](https://bliptext.com/articles/ourense), [A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-coru-a), [Fisterra](https://bliptext.com/articles/fisterra) became Orense, La Coruña, Finisterre.\nIn many cases this linguistic assimilation created confusion, for example Niño da Aguia (Galician: Eagle's Nest) was translated into Spanish as Niño de la Guía (Spanish: the Guide's child) and Mesón do Bento (Galician: Benedict's house) was translated as Mesón del Viento (Spanish: House of Wind).\n# [Mediaeval Galician inscription in a 14th-century house, in Noia: \"ESTAS CASAS MANDOU FAZER VASCO DACOSTA, ERA DE MCCCLXXVII\" These houses were ordered by Vasco Dacosta, era 1377 (1339 CE) | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Texto///-///Noia///-///Galiza.jpg]\n# [Aqui jaz Fernan Perez d'Andrade (here lies Fernán Pérez de Andrade), 1397 CE | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Betanzos///Igrexia///Monacal///de///San///Francisco///Andrade///O///Boo///56.jpg]\n# [Emilio Estévez and his father Martin Sheen (Ramón Estévez) | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Emilio///Estevez///and///Martin///Sheen.jpg]\n# [French-Spanish actor José Garcia, born Xosé García Doval of Galician parents | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Jos%C3%A9///Garcia///C%C3%A9sar///2018.jpg]\n\n# History\n\n## Prehistory\nThe oldest human occupation of Galicia dates to the [Palaeolithic](https://bliptext.com/articles/palaeolithic), when Galicia was covered by a dense oak [temperate rain forest](https://bliptext.com/articles/temperate-rain-forest).\nThe oldest human remains found, at Chan do Lindeiro, are from a woman who lived some 9,300 years ago and died because of a landslide, apparently while leading a pack of three [aurochs](https://bliptext.com/articles/aurochs); the genetic study of her remains revealed a woman that was an admixture of [Western Hunter-Gatherer](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-hunter-gatherer) and [Magdalenian](https://bliptext.com/articles/magdalenian) people.\nThis type of admixture has been observed in France, also.\nLater on, some 6,500 years ago, a [new population](https://bliptext.com/articles/neolithic-europe) arrived from the [Mediterranean](https://bliptext.com/articles/mediterranean), bringing [agriculture](https://bliptext.com/articles/agriculture) and [husbandry](https://bliptext.com/articles/husbandry) with them.\nHalf of the woodland was razed to pasture and farmland, almost replacing all of the woodland some 5,000 years ago.\nThis new population also changed the landscape with the first permanent human structures, megaliths such as [menhirs](https://bliptext.com/articles/menhirs), [barrows](https://bliptext.com/articles/tumulus) and [cromlechs](https://bliptext.com/articles/cromlech).\nDuring the Neolithic Galicia was one of the foci of [Atlantic European](https://bliptext.com/articles/atlantic-europe) [Megalithic Culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/megalithic-culture), putting in contact the Mediterranean and south [Iberia](https://bliptext.com/articles/iberia) with the rest of Atlantic Europe.\nSome 4,500 years ago a new culture and population arrived and presumingly admixed with the local farmers, the [Bell beaker](https://bliptext.com/articles/bell-beaker-culture) people, coming ultimately from the [Pontic steppe](https://bliptext.com/articles/pontic-steppe), who introduced [copper metallurgy](https://bliptext.com/articles/copper) and [weaponry](https://bliptext.com/articles/weaponry), and probably also new [cultivars](https://bliptext.com/articles/cultivar) and [breeds](https://bliptext.com/articles/breed).\nSome scholars consider that they were the first people to bring [Indo-European languages](https://bliptext.com/articles/indo-european-languages) into Western Europe.\nThey lived in open [villages](https://bliptext.com/articles/villages), only protected by fences or ditches; local archaeologists consider that they caused a very large culture impact, replacing [collectivism](https://bliptext.com/articles/collectivism-and-[individualism](https://bliptext.com/articles/individualism)) with [individualism](https://bliptext.com/articles/individualism), as exemplified by their burial in individual [cists](https://bliptext.com/articles/cist), along with the reuse of old Neolithic tombs.\nFrom this period and later dates a rich tradition of [petroglyphs](https://bliptext.com/articles/petroglyph), which find close similarities in the British Isles, Scandinavia or [northern Italy](https://bliptext.com/articles/rock-drawings-in-valcamonica).\nMotives include [cup and ring marks](https://bliptext.com/articles/cup-and-ring-marks), [labyrinths](https://bliptext.com/articles/labyrinth), Bronze Age weaponry, [deer](https://bliptext.com/articles/deer) and [deer](https://bliptext.com/articles/deer) hunting, warriors, riders and [ships](https://bliptext.com/articles/ship).\nOccasional contacts with Mediterranean navigators, since the last half of the second millennium BCE, became common after the 6th century BCE and the voyage of [Himilco](https://bliptext.com/articles/himilco).\n[Punic](https://bliptext.com/articles/punic) importations from southern Spain became frequent along the coast of southern Galicia, although they didn't penetrate very far to the north or to the interior; also, new decorative motives, as the [six-petal rosettes](https://bliptext.com/articles/six-petal-rosette), are popularized, together with new metallurgical techniques and pieces (ear pendants) and some other innovations as the round hand mill.\nIn exchange, Punics obtained [tin](https://bliptext.com/articles/tin), abundant in the islands and peninsulas of western Galicia (probable origin of the [Cassiterides](https://bliptext.com/articles/cassiterides) island myth) and probably also gold.\nIncidentally, [Avienus](https://bliptext.com/articles/avienius)' [Ora Maritima](https://bliptext.com/articles/ora-maritima) says after [Himilco](https://bliptext.com/articles/himilco) that the [Oestrymni](https://bliptext.com/articles/oestrymnides) (inhabitants of western Iberia) used [hide boats](https://bliptext.com/articles/currach) to navigate, an assertion confirmed by [Pliny the Elder](https://bliptext.com/articles/pliny-the-elder) for the Galicians.\n# [Neolithic dolmen of Dombate, roughly contemporary with Stonehenge. Originally it was under a tumulus covered by stones rich in mica | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Dombate///perfil///2013.jpg]\n\n## Roman conquest\nFirst recorded contact with Rome happened during the [Second Punic War](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-punic-war), when [Gallaecians](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaeci) and [Astures](https://bliptext.com/articles/astures), together with [Lusitanians](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanians), [Cantabrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/cantabrian-stelae) and [Celtiberians](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtiberians) —that is, the major [Indo-European](https://bliptext.com/articles/indo-european-languages) nations of Iberia— figured among the mercenary armies hired by [Hannibal](https://bliptext.com/articles/hannibal) to go with him into Italy.\nAccording to [Silus Italicus](https://bliptext.com/articles/silius-italicus)'s [Punica](https://bliptext.com/articles/punica-poem) III:\nFibrarum, et pennæ, divinarumque sagacem\nFlammarum misit dives Callæcia pubem,\nBarbara nunc patriis ululantem carmina linguis,\nNunc, pedis alterno percussa verbere terra,\nAd numerum resonas gaudentem plaudere cætras.\nHæc requies ludusque viris, ea sacra voluptas.\nCetera femineus peragit labor: addere sulco\nSemina, et inpresso tellurem vertere aratro\nSegne viris: quidquid duro sine Marte gerendum,\nCallaici conjux obit inrequieta mariti.\n\"Opulent Galicia sent her youth, expert in divination through the entrails of beasts, the flight of birds and the divine lightnings; sometimes they delight to chant rude songs in their fatherland's tongues, other times they make the ground tremble with alternative foot while happily clashing their [caetra](https://bliptext.com/articles/caetra) at the same time. This leisure and diversion is a sacred delight for the men, the feminine laboriosity do the rest: adding the seed to the furrow and working the ground with the plough while the men idle. Everything which must be done, with the exception of the hard war, is made restlessly by the wife of the Galician.\"\nHe later also mentions the [Grovii](https://bliptext.com/articles/grovii) of southern Galicia and northwestern Portugal, with their capital [Tui](https://bliptext.com/articles/tui-galicia), apart from the other Galicians; other authors also marked the distinctness of the [Grovii](https://bliptext.com/articles/grovii): Pomponius Mela by addressing that they were non Celtic, unlike the rest of the inhabitants of the coasts of Galicia; Pliny by signalling their Greek origin.\nAfter ending victoriously the [Lusitanian war](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanian-war) with the assassination of [Viriathus](https://bliptext.com/articles/viriathus), consul [Caepio](https://bliptext.com/articles/quintus-servilius-caepio-consul-140-bc) tried to wage war, unsuccessfully, on Gallaecians and [Vettones](https://bliptext.com/articles/vettones), for the help they lent to the Lusitanians.\nIn 138 BCE, another consul, [Decimus Junius Brutus](https://bliptext.com/articles/decimus-junius-brutus-callaicus), in command of two legions, passed de [Douro](https://bliptext.com/articles/douro) river and later the Lethes or Oblivio ([Limia](https://bliptext.com/articles/lima-river), which frightened his troops because of its other [name](https://bliptext.com/articles/river-of-oblivion)), in a successful campaign, managing to conquer many places of the Galicians.\nAfter reaching the [Minho](https://bliptext.com/articles/minho-river) river, and in his way back, he attacked (again successfully) the [Bracari](https://bliptext.com/articles/bracari), who had been harassing his [supply](https://bliptext.com/articles/military-supply-chain-management) chain: [Appian](https://bliptext.com/articles/appian) describe the [Bracari](https://bliptext.com/articles/bracari) women fighting bravely side by side with their men; of the women who were taken prisoners, some killed themselves, and others killed their children, preferring death to servitude.\nThe [spoils of war](https://bliptext.com/articles/looting) allowed Decimus Junius Brutus to celebrate a [triumph](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-triumph) back in Rome, receiving the name Callaicus.\nRecently a very large marching [Roman camp](https://bliptext.com/articles/castra) was discovered at high altitude, in Lomba do Mouro, at the very frontier of Galicia with Portugal.\nIn 2021 a [C-14 dating](https://bliptext.com/articles/c-14-dating) showed that it was built during the 2nd century BCE; since it is north of the Limia, it probably belonged to this campaign.\nThe Roman contact [ha](https://bliptext.com/articles/hectare)d a very large impact on the Castro Culture: an increase in commerce with the south and the Mediterranean; adoption or development of sculpture and stone carving; the [warrior ethos](https://bliptext.com/articles/warrior-ethos) appear to increase in social importance; some hill-forts are built new or rebuilt as true urban centres, [oppida](https://bliptext.com/articles/oppidum), with streets and definite public spaces, as [San Cibrao de Las](https://bliptext.com/articles/castro-of-san-cibrao-de-las) (10 [ha](https://bliptext.com/articles/hectare)) or [Santa Trega](https://bliptext.com/articles/castro-of-santa-trega) (20 [ha](https://bliptext.com/articles/hectare)).\nIn 61 BCE [Julius Caesar](https://bliptext.com/articles/julius-caesar), commanding thirty [cohorts](https://bliptext.com/articles/cohort-military-unit), launched from [Cádiz](https://bliptext.com/articles/c-diz) a maritime campaign along the Atlantic shores which ended in [Brigantium](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-coru-a).\nAccording to [Cassius Dio](https://bliptext.com/articles/cassius-dio), the locals, who had never seen a Roman fleet, surrendered in awe.\nRecent excavations at the Castro de Elviña hillfort, near A Coruña, have found both evidences of siege and partial destruction of the walls of the site, and also of a temple, dated to the middle of the first century BCE.\nFinally, in 29 BCE, [Augustus](https://bliptext.com/articles/augustus) launched a campaign of conquest against Gallaecians, Asturians and Cantabrians.\nThe most memorable episode of this war was the siege on the Mons Medullius, who [Paulus Orosius](https://bliptext.com/articles/paulus-orosius) placed near the [Minho](https://bliptext.com/articles/minho-river) river: it was surrounded by a 15 mille trench before a simultaneous Roman advance; according to [Anneus Florus](https://bliptext.com/articles/anneus-florus) the besieged decided to kill themselves, by fire, sword, or by the venon of the [yew tree](https://bliptext.com/articles/yew-tree).\nTens of Roman camps have been found related to this war, most of them corresponding to the later stages of the war, against Asturians and Cantabrians, some twenty of them in Galicia.\n[Augustus](https://bliptext.com/articles/augustus)' victory over the Gallaecians is celebrated in the [Sebasteion](https://bliptext.com/articles/sebasteion) of Aphrodisias, Turkey, where a triumphal monument to [Augustus](https://bliptext.com/articles/augustus) mentions them among other fifteen nations conquered by him.\nAlso, the [triumphal arch](https://bliptext.com/articles/triumphal-arch) of [Capentras](https://bliptext.com/articles/carpentras) probably represents a Gallaecian among other nations defeated by Augustus.\n# [Guerreiros from northern Portugal, wearing torcs, viriae and caetra. Castro culture. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/MuseuNacArqu-GuerreirosLusitanos.jpg]\n# [Gallaecians vs. Romans. Reenactors in Xinzo de Limia, Festa do Esquecemento | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Batalla///entre///castrexos///e///romanos.jpg]\n\n### Languages and ethnicity\n[Pomponius Mela](https://bliptext.com/articles/pomponius-mela) (a geographer from Tingentera, modern day [Algeciras](https://bliptext.com/articles/algeciras) in Andalusia) described, circa 43 CE, the coasts of northwestern Iberia:\nFrons illa aliquamdiu rectam ripam habet, dein modico flexu accepto mox paululum eminet, tum reducta iterum iterumque recto margine iacens ad promunturium quod Celticum vocamus extenditur.\nTotam Celtici colunt, sed a Durio ad flexum Grovi, fluuntque per eos Avo, Celadus, Nebis, Minius et cui oblivionis cognomen est Limia.\nFlexus ipse Lambriacam urbem amplexus recipit fluvios Laeron et Ullam.\nPartem quae prominet Praesamarchi habitant, perque eos Tamaris et Sars flumina non longe orta decurrunt, Tamaris secundum Ebora portum, Sars iuxta turrem Augusti titulo memorabilem.\nCetera super Tamarici Nerique incolunt in eo tractu ultimi.\nHactenus enim ad occidentem versa litora pertinent.\nDeinde ad septentriones toto latere terra convertitur a Celtico promunturio ad Pyrenaeum usque.\nPerpetua eius ora, nisi ubi modici recessus ac parva promunturia sunt, ad Cantabros paene recta est.\nIn ea primum Artabri sunt etiamnum Celticae gentis, deinde Astyres.\nIn Artabris sinus ore angusto admissum mare non angusto ambitu excipiens Adrobricam urbem et quattuor amnium ostia incingit: duo etiam inter accolentis ignobilia sunt, per alia Ducanaris exit et Libyca\n\"That ocean front for some distance has a straight bank, then, having taken a slight bend, soon protrudes a little bit and then it is drawn back, and again and again; then, lying on a straight line, the coast extends to the promontory which we call Celtic. All of it is inhabited by Celtics, except from the Durio until the bend, where the Grovi dwelt —and through them flow the rivers Avo, Celadus, Nebis, Minius and Limia, also called Oblivio—. On the bend there is the city of Lambriaca and the receding part receives the rivers Laeros and Ulia. The prominent part is inhabited by the Praestamarci, and through them flow the rivers Tamaris and Sars —which are born not afar— Tamaris by harbour Ebora, Sars by the tower of Augustus, of memorable title. For the rest, the Supertamarici and Neri inhabit in the last tract. Up to here what belongs to the western coast. From there all the coast is turned to the north, from the Celtic promontory to the Pyrenees.\nIts regular coast, except where there are small retreats and small headlands, is almost straight by the Cantabrians.\nOn it first of all are the Artabri, still a Celtic people, then the Astures.\nAmong the Artabri there is a bay which lets the sea through a narrow mouth, and encircles, not in a narrow circuit, the city of Adrobrica and the mouth of four rivers.\" The Atlantic and northern coast of today's Galicia was inhabited by Celtic peoples, with the exception of the southern extreme. Others geographers and authors (Pliny, Strabo), as well as the local Latin epigraphy, confirm the presence of Celtic peoples.\nAs for the language or languages spoken by the Galicians previously to their [romanization](https://bliptext.com/articles/romanization-cultural), most scholars usually perceive a primitive [Indo-European](https://bliptext.com/articles/indo-european-languages) layer, another later one hardly distinguishable from Celtic and identifiable with [Lusitanian](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanian-language), most notable in the south, the Gallaecia Bracarense (as a result, [Lusitanian](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanian-language) is sometimes called [Lusitanian](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanian-language)-Gallaecian) and finally Celtic proper; as stated by Alberto J. Lorrio: \"the presence of Celtic elements in the Northwest is indisputable, but there is no unanimity in considering whether there was an only [Indo-European](https://bliptext.com/articles/indo-european-languages) language in the West of Iberia, of Celtic kind, or either a number of languages derived from the arrival of non-Celtic [Indo-European](https://bliptext.com/articles/indo-european-languages)s first, and Celts later on\".\nSome academic positions on this issue:\n# [Geography and peoples of Galicia, after Mela, Pliny and local Latin epigraphy | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Populi///da///Gallaecia.png]\n# [Iberia circa 300 BCE | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Iberia///300BC-en.svg]\n\n## Roman period\nAfter the Roman conquest, the lands and people of northwestern Iberia were divided in three [conventi](https://bliptext.com/articles/conventus-iuridicus) ([Gallaecia Lucensis](https://bliptext.com/articles/conventus-lucensis), [Gallaecia Bracarensis](https://bliptext.com/articles/conventus-bracarensis) and Asturia) and annexed to the province of [Hispania Tarraconensis](https://bliptext.com/articles/hispania-tarraconensis).\nPliny wrote that the Lucenses comprised 16 [populi](https://bliptext.com/articles/people) and 166,000 free heads, and mentions the [Lemavi](https://bliptext.com/articles/lemavi), [Albiones](https://bliptext.com/articles/albiones), [Cibarci](https://bliptext.com/articles/cibarci), Egivarri [Namarini](https://bliptext.com/articles/namarini), Adovi, [Arroni](https://bliptext.com/articles/arroni), Arrotrebae, Celtici Neri, [Celtici Supertamarci](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtici-supertamarici), Copori, [Celtici Praestamarci](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtici-praestamarici), [Cileni](https://bliptext.com/articles/cileni) among them (other authors mention also the Baedui, [Artabri](https://bliptext.com/articles/artabri) and [Seurri](https://bliptext.com/articles/seurri)); the [Astures](https://bliptext.com/articles/astures) comprised 22 [populi](https://bliptext.com/articles/people) and 240,000, of whom the Lougei, Gigurri and Tiburi dwelt lands now in Galicia; finally the Bracarenses 24 [civitates](https://bliptext.com/articles/civitas) and 285,000, of whom the [Grovi](https://bliptext.com/articles/grovii), Helleni, [Querquerni](https://bliptext.com/articles/quaquerni), [Coelerni](https://bliptext.com/articles/coelerni), Bibali, [Limici](https://bliptext.com/articles/limici), Tamacani and [Interamici](https://bliptext.com/articles/interamici) dwelt, at least partially, in modern-day Galicia.\nThe names of some of these peoples have been preserved as the names of regions, parishes and villages: [Lemos](https://bliptext.com/articles/monforte-de-lemos) < Lemavos, Cabarcos, Soneira < *Sub Nerii, Céltigos < Celticos, [Valdeorras](https://bliptext.com/articles/valdeorras) < Valle de Gigurris, [Trives](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-pobra-de-trives) < Tiburis, Támagos < Tamacanos.\nSome other Galician regions derive from some populi or subdivision not listed by the classic authors, among them: Bergantiños < [Briganti](https://bliptext.com/articles/briganti)nos, from [Briganti](https://bliptext.com/articles/briganti), Nendo < Nemetos, from [Nemeton](https://bliptext.com/articles/nemeton), Entíns < Gentinis ('the chieftains').\nA common characteristic of both Gallaecians and western Astures were their onomastic formula and social structure: while most of the other Indo-European peoples of Hispania used a formula such as:\nGallaecians and western Astures used, until the 2nd century of our era, the formula:\nThe known personal names used by locals in northern Gallaecia were largely Celtic: Aio, Alluquius, Ambatus, Ambollus, Andamus, Angetus, Arius, Artius, Atius, Atia, Boutius, Cadroiolo, Caeleo, Caluenus, Camalus, Cambauius, Celtiatus, Cloutaius, Cloutius, Clutamus, Clutosius, Coedus, Coemia, Coroturetis, Eburus, Eburia, Louesus, Medamus, Nantia, Nantius, Reburrus, Secoilia, Seguia, Talauius, Tridia, Vecius, Veroblius, Verotus, Vesuclotus, among others.\nThree [legions](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-legion) were stationed near the [Cantabrian mountains](https://bliptext.com/articles/cantabrian-mountains) after the war, later reduced to the [Legio VII Gemina](https://bliptext.com/articles/legio-vii-gemina) in [León](https://bliptext.com/articles/le-n-spain), with three auxiliary [cohorts](https://bliptext.com/articles/cohort-military-unit) in Galicia (the [Cohors I Celtiberorum](https://bliptext.com/articles/cohors-i-celtiberorum) in Ciadella, [Sobrado dos Monxes](https://bliptext.com/articles/sobrado-dos-monxes), near [Brigantium](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-coru-a); other unity at [Aquis Querquennis](https://bliptext.com/articles/aquis-querquennis), and another one near [Lucus Augusti](https://bliptext.com/articles/lugo)) and others elsewhere.\nSoon Roma began to recruit [auxiliary troops](https://bliptext.com/articles/auxilia) locally: five cohorts of Gallaecians from the conventus Lucenses, other five of bracarenses, two mixed ones of Galicians and Asturians, and an [ala](https://bliptext.com/articles/ala-roman-allied-military-unit) and cohort of Lemavi.\nAlso, Gallaecia and Asturia became the most important producers of gold on the Empire: according to [Pliny](https://bliptext.com/articles/pliny-the-elder) Lusitania, Gallaecia and, especially, Asturia, produced the equivalent to 6,700 kg per year.\nIt has been estimated that the eight hundred Roman gold mines known in Galicia produced in total in between 190,000 and 2,000,000 kg.\nDuring the [Diocletian reforms](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocletian-reforms), late third century, Gallaecia was upgraded to [province](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-province).\n# [Conventi Iuridici (subprovincial divisions) | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Gallaecia-Dioclecianus.png]\n# [Roman works of Montefurado (Pierced Mountain), which diverted the course of the river Sil | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/R%C3%ADo///Sil%2C///Montefurado%2C///Quiroga///06.jpg]\n\n## Germanic era: 5th – 8th centuries\nIn 409 the [Vandals](https://bliptext.com/articles/vandals), [Suebi](https://bliptext.com/articles/suebi) and [Alans](https://bliptext.com/articles/alans), who had entered in the Roman Empire in 405 or 406 [crossing the Rhin](https://bliptext.com/articles/crossing-of-the-rhine), passed into the Iberian Peninsula.\nAfter a year of war and plundering, they were pacified by the offering of lands where to settle.\nThe Roman province of Gallaecia (including Gallaecia proper and the regions of [Asturia](https://bliptext.com/articles/conventus-asturum) and Cantabria) were assigned to the Suebi and the [Hasding Vandals](https://bliptext.com/articles/hasdingi).\nBoth groups clashed soon, in 419, and so the Vandals left to southern Iberia, where they incorporated the last remnants of Alans and [Silingi Vandals](https://bliptext.com/articles/silingi), who had been crushed by Rome in previous years.\nIn 429 the Vandals left for Africa.\nIn 430 a long term conflict broke in between the Suebi and locals who chronicler [Hydatius](https://bliptext.com/articles/hydatius) called gallaecos (i.e. galegos, the endonym of modern-day Galicians) and, initially, plebs (\"folk, common people\"), in contrast with whom he called romani: the rural landowners in Lusitania and the inhabitants of the cities.\nSoon, among those Galicians, appear also local noblemen and churchmen.\nAs the [Britons](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-britons) in southern Great Britain, the Galician were forced to act autonomously from Rome, exercising home rule.\nThey reoccupied old Iron Age hill-forts and built new strongholds and [fortification](https://bliptext.com/articles/fortification) all along Galicia; the largest known today are at Mt. Pindo, Mt. Aloia and at Castro Valente.\nThese fortresses were later used by locals against Visigoths, [Arabs](https://bliptext.com/articles/moors) and [Norsemen](https://bliptext.com/articles/vikings).\nIn this conflict in between Galicians and Suebi, Rome and local bishops acted frequently rather as [intermediaries](https://bliptext.com/articles/intermediary) than as a part, and peace our truce was obtained or warranted with the interchange of prisoners and [hostages](https://bliptext.com/articles/hostage).\nIn 438 both people attained a peace that would last for twenty years; by then old king [Hermeric](https://bliptext.com/articles/hermeric), who had led their people at least since their arrival from [Central Europe](https://bliptext.com/articles/central-europe), ceded the crown to his son [Rechila](https://bliptext.com/articles/rechila), who would expand the kingdom to the south and east, conquering [Emerita Augusta](https://bliptext.com/articles/augusta-emerita), [Mértola](https://bliptext.com/articles/m-rtola) and [Seville](https://bliptext.com/articles/seville), and moving his troops into eastern Hispania, defeating both Roman and [Visigoth](https://bliptext.com/articles/visigoths) armies along the way.\nHis successor and son, [Rechiar](https://bliptext.com/articles/rechiar), converted from [paganism](https://bliptext.com/articles/paganism) to Catholicism upon being crowned, and married a Visigoth princess.\nHe negotiated with Rome a new status for his kingdom and became the first post-Roman Germanic king to mint coins in his name.\nSoon, he tried to expand into the last Roman province in Hispania, [Tarraconense](https://bliptext.com/articles/hispania-tarraconensis); eventually this led to open conflict with Rome and the Visigoths.\nIn 456 a large army of [foederati](https://bliptext.com/articles/foederati) commanded by the kings of the Visigoths and the [Burgundians](https://bliptext.com/articles/burgundians) entered Hispania and defeated the Suebi army near the city of [León](https://bliptext.com/articles/le-n-spain).\nRechiar fled to [Porto](https://bliptext.com/articles/porto), but he was captured and later executed.\nNotwithstanding, the Visigoths left in a hurry the theatre of operation, returning to France.\nThat allowed the Suebi to regroup.\nAfter a period of [petty-kings](https://bliptext.com/articles/petty-kings) rivalry, accompanied by devastation and pillage on Galicians, [Remismund](https://bliptext.com/articles/remismund) was recognized as only and legitimate king by the Suebi, and accepted by the Visigoths; he also promoted the [Arianism](https://bliptext.com/articles/arianism) among the Suebi.\nAs result, the Suebi kingdom came to its limits, encompassing modern day Galicia, northern Portugal until [Coimbra](https://bliptext.com/articles/coimbra), and large parts of [Asturias](https://bliptext.com/articles/asturias), [León](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-le-n) and [Zamora](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-zamora).\nThe chronicle of Hydatius also records naval raids of both Vandals and [Heruli](https://bliptext.com/articles/heruli) on the Galician coasts during the 5th century.\n\n## Medieval era\nIn 718 the area briefly came under the control of the Moors after their conquest and dismantling of the Visigothic Empire, but the Galicians successfully rebelled against Moorish rule in 739, establishing a renewed [Kingdom of Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-galicia) which would become totally stable after 813 with the medieval popularization of the [\"Way of St James\"](https://bliptext.com/articles/camino-de-santiago).\n\n# Geography and demographics\n# [Galician bagpipers in New York. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Casa///Galicia///pipers///Pat///day///67///jeh.jpg]\n\n## Political and administrative divisions\nThe autonomous community, a concept established in the [Spanish constitution](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-constitution) of 1978, that is known as (a) Comunidade Autónoma Galega in Galician, and as (la) Comunidad Autónoma Gallega in Spanish (in English: Galician Autonomous Community), is composed of the four Spanish provinces of [A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-a-coru-a), [Lugo](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-lugo), [Ourense](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-ourense), and [Pontevedra](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-pontevedra).\n\n## Population, main cities and languages\nThe official statistical body of Galicia is the Instituto Galego de Estatística (IGE).\nAccording to the IGE, Galicia's total population in 2008 was 2,783,100 (1,138,474 in [A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-a-coru-a), 355.406 in [Lugo](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-lugo), 336.002 in [Ourense](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-ourense), and 953.218 in [Pontevedra](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-pontevedra) ).\nThe most important cities in this region, which serve as the provinces' administrative centres, are [Vigo](https://bliptext.com/articles/vigo) (in [Pontevedra](https://bliptext.com/articles/pontevedra)), [Pontevedra](https://bliptext.com/articles/pontevedra), [Santiago de Compostela](https://bliptext.com/articles/santiago-de-compostela), [A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-coru-a), [Ferrol](https://bliptext.com/articles/ferrol-spain) (in [A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-coru-a)), [Lugo](https://bliptext.com/articles/lugo) (in [Lugo](https://bliptext.com/articles/lugo)), and [Ourense](https://bliptext.com/articles/ourense) (in [Ourense](https://bliptext.com/articles/ourense)).\nThe official languages are Galician and Spanish.\nKnowledge of Spanish is compulsory according to the Spanish constitution and virtually universal.\nKnowledge of Galician, after declining for many years owing to the pressure of Spanish and official persecution, is again on the rise due to favorable official language policies and popular support.\nCurrently about 82% of Galicia's population can speak Galician and about 61% have it as a mother tongue.\n\n# Culture\n\n## Celtic revival and Celtic identity\nIn the 19th century a group of [Romantic](https://bliptext.com/articles/romanticism) and [Nationalist](https://bliptext.com/articles/nationalism) writers and scholars, among them [Eduardo Pondal](https://bliptext.com/articles/eduardo-pondal) and [Manuel Murguía](https://bliptext.com/articles/manuel-murgu-a), led a [[Celtic](https://bliptext.com/articles/celts) revival](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-revival) initially based on the historical testimonies of ancient Roman and Greek authors ([Pomponius Mela](https://bliptext.com/articles/pomponius-mela), [Pliny the Elder](https://bliptext.com/articles/pliny-the-elder), [Strabo](https://bliptext.com/articles/strabo) and [Ptolemy](https://bliptext.com/articles/ptolemy)), who wrote about the [Celtic](https://bliptext.com/articles/celts) peoples who inhabited Galicia; but they also based this revival in [linguistic](https://bliptext.com/articles/list-of-galician-words-of-celtic-origin) and [onomastic](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-place-names-in-galicia) data, and in the similarity of some aspects of the culture and the geography of Galicia with that of the [Celtic](https://bliptext.com/articles/celts) countries as Ireland, [Brittany](https://bliptext.com/articles/brittany) and Britain, as well as in the Bronze and Iron Age archaeological cultures.\nThese similarities included legends and traditions, and decorative and popular arts and [music](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-music).\nIt also included the green hilly landscape and the ubiquity of Iron Age [hill-forts](https://bliptext.com/articles/hill-fort), Neolithic [megaliths](https://bliptext.com/articles/megaliths) and Bronze Age [cup and ring marks](https://bliptext.com/articles/cup-and-ring-marks), which were and are popularly seen as \"Celtic\", also among foreigners who travelled to Galicia.\nAs a Celtic region of Spain, Galicia has a tartan called Galicia National.\nDuring the late 19th and early 20th century this revival permeated Galician society: in 1916 [Os Pinos](https://bliptext.com/articles/os-pinos), a poem by Eduardo Pondal, was chosen as the lyrics for the new Galician hymn.\nOne of the strophes of the poem says: Galicians, be strong / ready to great deeds / align your breast / for a glorious end / sons of the noble Celts / strong and traveller / fight for the fate / of the homeland of [Breogán](https://bliptext.com/articles/breog-n).\nThe Celtic past became an integral part of the self-perceived Galician identity: as a result an important number of cultural association and sport clubs received names related to the Celts, among them [Celta de Vigo](https://bliptext.com/articles/celta-de-vigo), [Céltiga FC](https://bliptext.com/articles/c-ltiga-fc), [CB Breogán](https://bliptext.com/articles/cb-breog-n), etc.\nFrom the 1970s on a series of Celtic music and cultural festivals were also popularized, the most notable being the Festival Internacional do Mundo Celta de [Ortigueira](https://bliptext.com/articles/ortigueira), at the same time that Galician folk musical bands and interpreters became usual participants in Celtic festivals elsewhere, as in the Interceltic festival of Lorient, where Galicia sent its first delegation in 1976.\n# [Galician pipe band Dambara at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient, 2012 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/FIL///2012///-///Arriv%C3%A9e///de///la///grande///parade///des///nations///celtes///-///Banda///de///gaitas///Dambara.jpg]\n# [Galician Celtic Revival: Homes de Brigantia ('Men of Brigantia'), by Camilo Díaz Baliño (1922) | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/E///tras///de///xurdia///loita///os///homes///de///Brigantia///reconqueriron///o///Santo///Grial///ceibe///e///grorioso.jpg]\n\n## Folklore and traditions\n# [Winged serpent of Gondomil, Portugal. The Christian cross is a latter addition | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Pedra///da///serpe///de///Gondomil.png]\n\n### Myths and legends\nGalician [folklore](https://bliptext.com/articles/folklore) is similar to that of the rest of western [Europe](https://bliptext.com/articles/european-folklore), especially to that or northern [Portugal](https://bliptext.com/articles/portugal), [Asturias](https://bliptext.com/articles/asturias) and [Cantabria](https://bliptext.com/articles/cantabria).\nAmong its most notorious [myths](https://bliptext.com/articles/myths) are the following:\n# [Fornela dos Mouros ('Mouros' oven') dolmen | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Dolmen///da///Fornela///dos///Mouros.jpg]\n# [Pico Sagro, where a dragon dwelt | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Pico///Sacro.jpg]\n# [Maruxaina | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Escultura///A///Maruxaina.001///-///San///Cibrao///%28Cervo%29.jpg]\n# [1920's advertising and the Santa Compaña | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Anuncio///M///Sancho///por///Camilo///D%C3%ADaz///Bali%C3%B1o.jpg]\n# [Santa Compaña (modern graffiti) | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Santa///Compa%C3%B1a///Pontevedra///01-01b.jpg]\n\n### Traditions and beliefs\nWhile Galicia was traditionally a profoundly [Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-church) society, in its beliefs there are many remnants of previous religious systems, in particular the belief on a pantheon of gods, now [saints](https://bliptext.com/articles/saint); in the reincarnation in form of an animal, when there are unfinished business; the [evil eye](https://bliptext.com/articles/evil-eye) and the sickness caused by [curses](https://bliptext.com/articles/curse); the holiness of crossroads and fountains, etcetera.\nThe first attestation of the beliefs of the Galicians in a Christian context is offered by the [Pannonian](https://bliptext.com/articles/pannonian-basin) [Martin of Braga](https://bliptext.com/articles/martin-of-braga) who in his letter De Correctione Rusticorum condemns, among others, the belief in the Roman gods or in the [lamias](https://bliptext.com/articles/lamia), [nymphs](https://bliptext.com/articles/nymph) and [dianas](https://bliptext.com/articles/diana-mythology), and also in practices as putting candles to trees, springs and crossroads.\n\n### Popular feasts\nAside from Catholic feasts and celebrations, there are other annual celebrations of [pagan](https://bliptext.com/articles/paganism) or mixed origin:\n\n### Traditional costume\nTraditional Galician costume, as understood today, got conformed fundamentally during the second half of the 18th century.\nNotwithstanding, some very characteristic elements, as the monteira (an embroidered felt hat), [breeches](https://bliptext.com/articles/breeches) and [jacket](https://bliptext.com/articles/jacket) are already present in 16th century depictions.\nAlthough there are some regional variance, males attire is generally composed of monteira and sometimes pano (headcloth), camisa ([shirt](https://bliptext.com/articles/shirt)), chaleco ([vest](https://bliptext.com/articles/vest)), chaqueta (jacket), faixa ([sash](https://bliptext.com/articles/sash)), calzón (breeches), cirolas ([underwear](https://bliptext.com/articles/underwear)), polainas ([gaiters](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaiter), [spats](https://bliptext.com/articles/spats-footwear)) and zocas, zocos'' ([clogs](https://bliptext.com/articles/clogs) or [boots](https://bliptext.com/articles/boot)).\n\n### Traditional music\nThe most characteristic instrument in traditional music is probably the [gaita](https://bliptext.com/articles/galician-gaita) (bagpipe).\nThe gaita have a conical double-reed chanter, and usually have one to four drones.\nThe bag is usually inflated through a blowpipe, but in the gaita de barquín it is inflated by the operation of a bellows.\nIn the past the gaita was usually accompanied just by tamboril ([snare drum](https://bliptext.com/articles/snare-drum)) and bombo or caixa ([bass drum](https://bliptext.com/articles/bass-drum)), but since the middle of the twentieth century the groups and bands have become very popular.\nPieces which are usually interpreted with gaita are the [muiñeira](https://bliptext.com/articles/mui-eira), often in time and very similar to Irish [jigs](https://bliptext.com/articles/jig); the alborada, played during the early mornings of holydays; the marcha (march) which accompanies processions and retinues.\nSome renowned compositions are the 19th century Muiñeira de Chantada and the traditional Aires de Pontevedra (an alborada) and Marcha do Antigo Reino de Galicia (March of the Old Kingdom of Galicia).\nAnother very representative instrument is the pandeireta ([tambourine](https://bliptext.com/articles/tambourine)), which along or together with other drums as the [pandeiro](https://bliptext.com/articles/adufe), [castanets](https://bliptext.com/articles/castanets), etc., usually accompanied the songs and celebrations of the working women and men during the seráns (evenings), foliadas or fiadas.\nOther genres include de alalá, which can be sung [a cappella](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-cappella), or the cancións de cego (blindman's songs), interpreted with [violin](https://bliptext.com/articles/violin) of [zanfoña](https://bliptext.com/articles/hurdy-gurdy).\n\n## Literature\n\n## Painting, plastic arts and architecture\n\n## Science\n\n## Music\n\n## Sport\n\n## Cinema and TV\n\n# People of Galician origin","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}