Science: Truth About Knossos?

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Palmer reluctantly agreed to write the story, carefully avoiding any direct accusations against Evans. But the Observer edited much more emphasis into his article. His mild title, "Minoans and Greeks," was changed to "The Truth About Knossos." A front page news story, which

Palmer had never seen, declared: "Knossos findings misrepresented—archaeological sensation."

In vain Palmer protested that the Observer had done him wrong. Archaeologists and philologists assailed him from all sides. Surviving friends came valiantly to Sir Arthur's defense. "My eye!" said Sir John Forsdyke, onetime director of the British Museum. "If there had been any jiggery-pokery, subsequent investigation would have been bound to reveal it."

Palmer explained that he does not accuse Sir Arthur of deliberate misrepresentation, only of the self-deception of old age. But he still insists that the evidence of Duncan Mackenzie's daybook is plain for all to see. It shows, he says, that the Cretans of 1400 B.C. must have got their culture from the Greek mainland. That culture did not die, as Sir Arthur claimed, when the mainlanders came to Crete.