Lowdown evidence endures

A front-page headline in Sunday’s Post and Courier accurately reported: “There is history beneath your feet.”

For instance, as a full page of words and images inside that A section showed, cannonballs, giant sharks’ teeth, artesian wells and a George Washington political button are among vestiges of an epic past found below ground level in our city.

Another subterranean reminder of times gone by: the graves of 37 early-Colonial residents recently unearthed at the Gaillard Center construction site.

As you reflect on those remarkable relics chronicled in our March 10, 2013, newspaper, ponder the possibilities of what Charlestonians of 2113, 2213 and beyond might find “beneath their feet.”

Hmm. Anything made of Styrofoam or plastic should have considerable staying power down in the dirt. Judging from present trends, plenty of cell phones also will linger long from now, despite appeals for recycling of that ubiquitous symbol of our dispersed-attentions age.

Maybe by then future folks, while using new-fangled devices of their own, will have evolved sufficiently to better heed this maxim issued more than 2,100 years ago by the Roman playwright Terence:

“Moderation in all things.”

Meanwhile, in our own time and our own city famed for enduring charm, fine dining and festive taverns, we — and our guests — should follow this more recent advice:

“Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation” (Benjamin Franklin).

And dig not too deeply lest you slice an underground cable.