Good sources and excellent academic speculation -- but I'm going to bet that it won't turn out to be Atlantis.
Beyond the fact that I don't think Atlantis ever existed (that it was a parable made up by Plato), here's why I think it's implausible:
The dates:
Plato was born in 427 BC. The site date on that is said to be 500 BC to 800 BC. Now, if it was sunk in 500 BC, Plato's father and everyone else
would know about it. There'd be writing and artifacts galore.
So let's say it was 800 BC, then (the oldest date given). However, this was the time of the poet, Hesiod, who came after Homer. He and others would
have left poetry or prose about the event -- surely as cataclysmic to the Greeks as 9/11 was to our world.
college.hmco.com...
And older? Well, the Greeks did document (in plays, poetry, and songs) the Trojan war, and the approximate date of that is around 1200 BC.
There are no older great sources mentioning Atlantis. This is the stuff of high tragedy, greater than even the stories about Troy and the ruling
houses of Greece. And yet Greek history and literature is silent on the matter except for the single parable of Plato.
And that's why I think they're not going to find Atlantis.
[edit on 7-6-2004 by Byrd]