in the late bronze age, britain was part of a culture called the atlantic bronze age, held together by maritime trading, which also included ireland, france, spain and portugal. in contrast to the generally accepted view that celtic originated in the context of the hallstatt culture, since 2009, john t. koch and others have proposed that the origins of the celtic languages are to be sought in bronze age western europe, especially the iberian peninsula. koch et al.'s proposal has failed to find wide acceptance among experts on the celtic languages.