Lost cities / archaeology / ancient history

Well, I think of Atlantis as just another flood myth, albeit one that inspired more speculation than all the others taken together, and there are so many others. Not just based on the theories that have been advanced to explain the Atlantis myth, there are loads of candidates for what it may have been, if anything, or if any one thing. Flooding clearly occurred in many places where humans had built a lot of stuff, and there are many, many sites where there are clearly major remains undersea, like Alexandria. Here are some names of sunken cities in Greece, Pavlopetri being the most famous, I think:

http://www.visitgreece.gr/en/activities/water_sports/scuba_diving/submerged_greek_cities

There are major sites off the Indian coast, too, that may eventually prove spectacular. Obviously, closer to Dogger Bank, we have our very own Dunwich. Over the years, I've looked at web-sites about dozens more whose names I can't remember.

The main problem with interpreting the Atlantis story is that the Critias, the Platonic dialogue in which the main description is found, and the purported trilogy of dialogues (Timaeus, Critias, Hermocrates) are unfinished, as the Hermocrates may never have been written. In view of the textual tradition in Plato, it is very unlikely that there will be a sensational discovery of this material. (Plato is the only ancient writer whose work is thought to have been transmitted completely, allowing for transcription errors and the like.) Plato's myths did serve a purpose, but because of the incompleteness of the apparently-intended setting, it's not clear what the purpose of the Atlantis story there may have been when envisaged. I mean, it's possible that he hit a dead end (there is a reasonable argument that around the time when the Timaeus and Critias were apparently composed, Plato experienced a sea-change in his philosophy, no pun intended), but it's just not known. There is a sort of 'announcement' in the Sophist and in the Politicus that there would be a third dialogue in that series, which he seemingly didn't end up writing (the 'Philosophos'), and there are various theories as to why. It's most likely that he didn't follow through with these grand conceptions, e.g. late in life he may have prioritised the Laws as a sort of political testament to the Philosophos. Again, it's only speculation, there is simply no conclusive evidence.

The Atlantis myth appears to have a relationship with Plato's political work and seems to have been intended to highlight possible disastrous consequences for hubristically-governed polities, perhaps following Plato's disappointment in Syracuse. However, there may well be elements taken from a much longer tradition by prior authors whose work may well have been known to Plato's audience, and it's also part of this strand in Plato's work of myths apparently obtained from Egypt, and thence possibly from further east. Elsewhere, Plato castigates myth-making severely, so it's all a bit puzzling how it fits, or not, into his work.

I can well imagine that the loss of what we now call Doggerland may have inspired myths, but again there are just so many candidates, and I also suspect that the major myths will have been inspired by catastrophic flood events rather than a gradual loss of land over (in human terms) quite a long time, and 'Doggerland' may have been lost in the latter fashion.

All that said, I'd obviously be fascinated if remains of major human activity were found there, but that's at least decades, more likely centuries, away.