The Knossos Tablets

Extract

At last the cards are on the table. Palmer's book was intended to present the testimonia in support of his theory about the date of the Knossos tablets. His case was a simple one, and if correct could have been presented simply. But the discussions of the last three and a half years, which have revealed so many shortcomings in his arguments, have necessitated advocacy, rather than a presentation of evidence which could stand by itself. And since the objections raised have seemed to most scholars fatal to his theory the core of the matter has been further overlaid by repetitious arguments and criticism. The present reviewer has suffered more than most since he had been alone in the position of being able to answer Palmer's unsupported arguments from knowledge of the unpublished material. From the Preface through every introduction to the quotations from the notebooks the reader is presented with Palmer's special pleading for his cause. He doth protest too much-and his anxiety leaves me, for one, with the impression that he is himself uneasy about a theory which requires so much dialectic in its support and attacks (however veiled) upon scholars who can no longer answer back.