Editing Celts (section)

==='Celtic from the West' theory===
[[File:Europe late bronze age.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A map of Europe in the Bronze Age, showing the Atlantic network in red]]
In the late 20th century, the Urnfield-Hallstatt theory began to fall out of favour with some scholars, which was influenced by new archaeological finds. 'Celtic' began to refer primarily to 'speakers of Celtic languages' rather than to a single culture or ethnic group.<ref name="Sims-Williams" /> A new theory suggested that Celtic languages arose earlier, along the Atlantic coast (including Britain, Ireland, [[Armorica]] and [[Iberia]]), long before evidence of 'Celtic' culture is found in archaeology. [[Myles Dillon]] and [[Nora Kershaw Chadwick]] argued that "Celtic settlement of the British Isles" might date to the [[Bell Beaker culture]] of the [[Copper Age|Copper]] and Bronze Age (from c. 2750 BC).<ref>Myles Dillon and Nora Kershaw Chadwick, ''The Celtic Realms'', 1967, 18–19</ref><ref name="cunliffewest">{{cite book |last=Cunliffe |first=Barry |title=Celtic from the West Chapter 1: Celticization from the West – The Contribution of Archaeology |date=2010 |publisher=[[Oxbow Books]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-1-84217-410-4 |page=14}}</ref> [[Martín Almagro Gorbea]] (2001) also proposed that Celtic arose in the [[3rd millennium BC]], suggesting that the spread of the Bell Beaker culture explained the wide dispersion of the Celts throughout western Europe, as well as the variability of the Celtic peoples.<ref>2001 p 95. La lengua de los Celtas y otros pueblos indoeuropeos de la península ibérica. In Almagro-Gorbea, M., Mariné, M. and Álvarez-Sanchís, J.R. (eds) Celtas y Vettones, pp. 115–21. Ávila: Diputación Provincial de Ávila.</ref>

[[John T. Koch]]<ref name="Koch2009">{{cite journal |last=Koch |first=John T. |title=Tartessian: Celtic from the Southwest at the Dawn of History in Acta Palaeohispanica X Palaeohispanica 9 |journal=Palaeohispánica: Revista sobre lenguas y culturas de la Hispania antigua |date=2009 |pages=339–51 |url= http://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/29/54/26koch.pdf |issn=1578-5386 |access-date=17 May 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100623034727/http://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/29/54/26koch.pdf |archive-date=23 June 2010}}</ref> and [[Barry Cunliffe]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Cunliffe |first=Barry |title=A Race Apart: Insularity and Connectivity in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 75 |date=2008 |publisher=[[Prehistoric Society]] |pages=55–64 [61]}}</ref> have developed this 'Celtic from the West' theory. It proposes that the proto-Celtic language arose along the Atlantic coast and was the ''[[lingua franca]]'' of the [[Atlantic Bronze Age]] cultural network, later spreading inland and eastward.<ref name="Sims-Williams" /> More recently, Cunliffe proposes that proto-Celtic had arisen in the Atlantic zone even earlier, by 3000 BC, and spread eastwards with the Bell Beaker culture over the following millennium. His theory is partly based on [[glottochronology]], the spread of ancient Celtic-looking placenames, and thesis that the [[Tartessian language]] was Celtic.<ref name="Sims-Williams" /> However, the proposal that Tartessian was Celtic is widely rejected by linguists, many of whom regard it as unclassified.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sims-Williams |first=Patrick |date=2 April 2020 |title=An Alternative to 'Celtic from the East' and 'Celtic from the West' |journal=Cambridge Archaeological Journal |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=511–529 |doi=10.1017/s0959774320000098 |s2cid=216484936 |issn=0959-7743 |doi-access=free |hdl=2160/317fdc72-f7ad-4a66-8335-db8f5d911437 |hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Hoz |first=J. de |title=Method and methods |date=28 February 2019 |url= http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198790822.003.0001 |work=Palaeohispanic Languages and Epigraphies |pages=1–24 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198790822.003.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-879082-2 |access-date=29 May 2021}}</ref>