Palmer, Trevor

Published February 8, 2013

Trevor Palmer (1944- ) is an English Professor of Biology now living in Scotland. Apart from his day job of enzymology and the study of genetic disorders, which led to an interest in evolution, which in turn brought him to research catastrophism, he has written several books on these subjects, including >Controversy Catastrophism and Evolution ^[1971]<Perilous Planet Earth ^[888],which places today’s “concern about the threat to Earth from asteroids and comets within a historical context.” He devotes two chapters of this comprehensive work to the subject of Atlantis, in which he reviews (chap.13) some of the late 19^th and early 20^th century theories as well as more recent developments (chap.28) exposing many of the weaknesses in the arguments on offer.

>A lecture with the same title as the book was delivered to the Society for Interdisciplinary Studies (SIS) in September 2004 and is now available online^(m).<

While Palmer does not express any personal views on the subject, it is noteworthy that he wrote an introduction to the 2005 Barnes & Noble edition of Lewis Spence’s The History of Atlantis. After a brief look at Spence’s life, Palmer gives an overview of the principal strands of Atlantology today and concluded that many of the issues debated 80 years ago are still unresolved and for that reason, Spence’s book continues to be worth studying.

Palmer wrote a short paper^(a) in 1987 in which he was cautiously sceptical of the Atlantis story, particularly the possibility that it was destroyed during the Late Pleistocene era, with which I concur. He also touched on the subject of the Carolina Bays, apparently adding support to the now-discredited idea that they were created by wind action. I expect that he may have modified his views by now. However, the US Geological Survey is now (2021) identifying the bays as ‘relict thermokarst lakes’.^(h)

Palmer presented a paper entitled Catastrophes: The Diluvial Evidence at the Society for Interdisciplinary Studies (SIS) Silver Jubilee Conference in September 1999.⁽ⁱ⁾ He also addressed the SIS in 2004 on the background to his book published the previous year^(d).

Palmer published two similar papers in 2010^(b)and 2012^(e) on the history of catastrophism and the ensuing debates from the time of Velikovsky until the present, when catastrophism has greater acceptance and which now offers a variety of competing ideas regarding the number, source, date and consequences of specific catastrophes.

In the second paper delivered to the Quantavolution Conference on Naxos, he offers the interesting observation that “In science, unlike religion, the great revelations lie in the future; the coming generations are the authorities, and the pupil is greater than the master if he has the gift to see things anew.”

Palmer has also written a 2018 review^(c) of Perilous Planet Earth in light of developments since it was first published.

In 2009, Palmer published an interesting paper on the Black Sea and its dramatic connection with the Mediterranean (9,400 years ago) and how it may have influenced the creation of flood myths in the region^(l). “The various groups currently investigating the area are agreed that cataclysmic flooding took place during the Late Pleistocene, but remain divided about whether similar floods also occurred during the Holocene. Eye-witness accounts of catastrophic floods in the Black Sea basin at either time could have been passed on to future generations, eventually giving rise to the later Mesopotamian legend of Uta-napishtim and, subsequently, the Biblical story of Noah. However, in the absence of any direct evidence of cultural transmission, that can presently only be regarded as plausible speculation.”

Palmer and Gunnar Heinsohn have been debating Heinsohn’s claim that our chronology of the 1st millennium AD is deeply flawed, on the Q-Mag website^(f). Palmer has also written a lengthy paper supporting his views on the matter^(g).

In addition, Palmer has also examined the ancient Greek and Roman historians “to test whether they present a picture of the past consistent with that revealed by archaeology, particularly inscriptions indicating sequences and timescales, and also to see the extent to which they support, or otherwise, the orthodox chronology and a number of representative alternative chronologies.” He concluded that there was ‘general accuracy’^(j). He subsequently expanded on this paper to include a review of the chronology of the 1st millennium AD^(k).

^(a) See Archive 3026

^(b) https://www.academia.edu/22557009/The_Renaissance_of_Catastrophism_in_I_Tresman_ed_Quantavolution_Challenges_to_Conventional_Science_Metron_2010_pp_407_452?email_work_card=view-paper

^(c) Archive 4971 | (atlantipedia.ie)

^(d)Archive 4972 | (atlantipedia.ie)

^(e) Archive 4973 | (atlantipedia.ie)

^(f) https://www.q-mag.org/_search.html?req=Trevor+Palmer

^(g) https://www.academia.edu/37544096/Writers_and_Re_Writers_of_First_Millennium_History_Second_draft_October_2018^_

^(h) https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147904/ice-age-carolinas

⁽ⁱ⁾https://www.academia.edu/35224202/Catastrophes_The_Diluvial_Evidence_Final_paper_presented_at_the_SIS_Silver_Jubilee_Conference_Easthampstead_Park_1999_Published_in_Chronology_and_Catastrophism_Review_2000_pp_108_116

(j) https://www.academia.edu/23267725/The_Writings_of_the_Ancients_and_their_Relevance_to_Chronology_up_to_332_BC_Part_I_Chronology_and_Catastrophism_Review_2013_pp_46_51_Part_II_Chronology_and_Catastrophism_Workshop_2014_1_pp_18_23_Part_III_Chronology_and_Catastrophism_Review_2014_pp_30_35

^(k) (99+) Writers and Re-Writers of First Millennium History (Second draft, October 2018 ) | Trevor Palmer – Academia.edu

^(l)https://www.academia.edu/22814109/Catastrophic_Black_Sea_Floods_and_the_Story_of_Noah_Chronology_and_Catastrophism_Review_2009_pp_45_54