ABSTRACT: Through the following essay we want to know more about the Iberian Peninsula inhabitants who lived in what, nowadays, is part of León, Palencia, Burgos, Segovia, Ávila, Salamanca, Zamora and the whole of Valladolid, known as vacceos who occupied this area between the 3rd century before Christ and the Roman conquest. The essay is divided into three points, being the third one the most important. The basic features of the vacceos are explained in them: their territorial organization in “city-state” where other smaller cities depended on them, being characteristic the “vacíos vacceos”, a wide unpopulated areas that were interfluvial deserts typical of their regional geomorphology which are understood as political vacuum; the hierarchy that apparently existed in their society; the economy based, mainly, on the farming which is related to the “colectivismo vacceo”, and the cults of the nature, the sun and the moon that involved their beliefs, which were the same for all Celtic people. Regarding the settlement, we have focused our attention on analysing the places that were chosen by the vacceos in order to be situated, as they were ideal to make the most out of the resources and environment. In the same way, the features of the cities or oppida can be explained thanks to aerial photography, differentiating cities from civitates. Finally, despite the difficulties studying these necropolis areas has implied, we have been able to show the general features of these vacceos cemeteries as well as, to set out the rituals and the deceased treatment where people were generally cremated, and all the symbolic scenes that it had around the interment throught the sacrificies, the trousseaus and the offerings. In conslusion, the essay tries to be a summary about the vacceos people, where we have known the general aspects of their culture and their lifestyle. Besides, we have wanted to emphasize the interest in the necropolis, since the idea of interment is a memory symbol and a search of a never-ending life. This belief has arrived so far because it is an aspect that has been part of the human being from the first of their existence.
