Prometheus, A Great Titan of Greek Mythology

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April 6, 2020 – Five statues overlook Freedom Square, with the centerpiece of this collection being a Titan of Greek mythology: Prometheus. While the other four statues stand proudly, Prometheus is forced to one knee by shackles, defiantly raising a torch to the sky.

Why is he in shackles on one knee, raising this torch to the sky? First, let’s learn a little about Prometheus. His name can be translated to ‘forethought’, and he’s commonly associated with intelligence, self-sacrifice and inexhaustible empathy. Prometheus went against the wishes of Zeus, king of the Greek gods, by providing fire to humankind, an act which allowed humanity to develop rapidly. His punishment for this deed is immortalized in our statue: Prometheus was bound to a mountain where an eagle would eat his regenerating liver for the rest of eternity. A grueling punishment indeed.

The torch which Prometheus holds represents his unbreakable resilience in the face of oppression, and his determination to bring knowledge to humanity. The story of Prometheus perfectly illustrates how the empathy of one can influence the lives of many, inspiring them to see beyond.

To find out who the other four statues represent, be sure to look for another blog in the future.

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Stumpjumper: A One-Of-A-Kind Boat

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April 6, 2020 – Reelfoot Lake is a local treasure, and it hosts many cultural, historical and scientific details unique to the region. One such unique point of interest is found in the stumpjumper.

This oddly named boat helps fishermen navigate the shallow waters of the lake and the cypress trees dotting its landscape. Immediately identifiable by its slim design, flat underside, and bow-facing oars, these boats jump from cypress to cypress, ferrying its passengers across.

Though there is an aura of mystery surrounding the boat’s original design, which first appeared around 150 years ago, we do know with some certainty who designed one of its most famous features. In the early days of navigating Reelfoot Lake, it was imperative that boaters knew exactly where they were going, making the usual oar design found in other boats rather useless.

However, in 1884, an Illinois native named Fred Allen patented an oar design that allowed the oarsman to face the direction they were moving. This allowed for easier navigation of the cypress trees which otherwise would have made Reelfoot Lake impassable. Since the late 1800s, many boat makers have added to the rich history of the stumpjumper, and to this day, one can still find them for sale to use in navigating the waters of Reelfoot Lake.

Learn more about stump jumpers when you visit the Regional Gallery at Discovery Park of America.

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The Rosetta Stone

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March 30, 2020 – Ptolemy V Epiphanes was crowned Pharaoh in 196 BC, but his deeds as ruler are largely eclipsed by how word of his coronation’s anniversary was delivered to the people of Memphis, Egypt. Priests carved a message cataloging Ptolemy’s noble deeds on stone in three languages: hieroglyphs, Egyptian demotic, and ancient Greek. When French engineers discovered the Rosetta Stone in 1799, the language of Egyptian hieroglyphics was still a frustrating and seemingly unsolvable mystery to scholars.

An English physicist named Thomas Young was the first to understand that some of the hieroglyphs on the stone phonetically spelled out Ptolemy’s name. Using Young’s work as a foundation, French scholar Jean-François Champollion studied how non-Egyptian ruler names were written out in hieroglyphs and created a phonetic alphabet. In 1824 Champollion made his final breakthrough, and the secrets of ancient hieroglyphs were finally unlocked to the modern world.

This otherwise minor decree has become one of the most famous and celebrated artifacts in archeological history. A replica of the Rosetta Stone is just one of many ancient artifacts displayed in Discovery Park of America’s Enlightenment Gallery.

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Uncut Diamonds: Before the Shine

March 27, 2020 – See the brown mineral that looks like a lump of dirt in the featured pictures? These are real diamonds, on display in our mineral case inside Discovery Center. Discovery Park guests who view them are often surprised that their appearance is not what they expected, but these are uncut diamonds, which means they aren’t reflected and shiny yet.

Diamonds can reflect light and shine with incredible beauty, but in order to do that, they must be cut into a shape with flat surfaces. Consider your mirror–it probably doesn’t have a curved surface. Puddles are much the same, since water can reflect light, but the more ripples and waves on the water surface, the less of the reflection you can see.

Diamonds, and many other precious stones, come out of the ground in all kinds of shapes, and frequently need to be cut so that they have flat surfaces to sparkle and shine.

Cutting a diamond is not easy. A diamond is so hard that another diamond is required to cut it. Of course, this doesn’t mean that diamonds are invulnerable to objects that are not diamonds – a diamond can be broken with a hammer, an industrial crusher or any object possessing enough force. Diamonds are unable to be cut or scratched without using another diamond, but they will eventually break just like any other mineral will break into pieces when subject to sufficient force.

Interestingly though, diamonds break in specific directions, called “cleavage planes,” which allow experts to predict how they will come apart and gemcutters to perform wonders. Some diamonds have been cut many times into smaller ones. For example, the Cullinan Diamond, the largest clear diamond in the world, was cut many times into nine major and more than 90 minor stones.

One thing that many people falsely believe about diamonds is that they last forever. Certainly this message is often repeated in advertisements, but diamonds, and other minerals and rocks, are always changing to fit their environment.

Consider a firefighter, underwater welder or astronaut: they wear protective gear in extreme environments, but not in their living room. When protection is not needed, they change into bluejeans, which are more comfortable than a spacesuit or diving gear. Rocks and minerals change to suit their environments, too. Geologists use the term “metamorphism” when rocks change due to heat and pressure into a new form to suit their environment.

Carbon, which makes up diamonds, is formed at ultra-high pressures, where it is stable many miles down in the extreme heat and pressures in the depths of our planet. However, when carbon is removed from that extreme heat and pressure that made it turn into a diamond, it continues, slowly but surely, to change into other substances. Given enough time, the diamonds on rings and necklaces will turn into other forms of carbon. This might take hundreds of thousands of years, but even a million years is less time than forever!

Make sure you come to the Natural History Gallery at Discovery Park of America and enjoy our diamonds, emeralds, fossils, rocks, and minerals, while they still look amazing.

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Thomas Jefferson: Paleontologist

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March 23, 2020 – Did you know that President Thomas Jefferson is considered the father of American paleontology? The Sage of Monticello collected numerous fossils over his lifetime but had a particular obsession with mammoths, which he believed inhabited the unexplored West. In fact, when Jefferson commissioned Lewis and Clark’s expedition, one of their objectives was to find a live mammoth population west of the Mississippi! In Jefferson’s time, paleontologists were not entirely sure how the skeleton of a mammoth was built as a complete skeleton had not been found. Jefferson is known to have played with mammoth bones on the floor of the White House as if they were a puzzle. If only he were able to see the complete authentic mammoth specimen now on display in the Regional History Gallery at Discovery Park of America!

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Naga Feast of Merit

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March 23, 2020 – The Naga of Northeastern India, numbering over 80 individual tribes, lived in a world all their own in the foothills of the Himalayas for around a thousand years before the arrival of the British in the 19th century. The name “Naga” comes from the Burmese word for “pierced ears,” as Burmese guides aiding British regiments referred to the tribes beyond their borders by their ear rings. The Naga tribes practiced a tradition known as the Feast of Merit, in which a married couple who had come into money or saved their wealth would host a feast for their entire village. The feast would last for days, only ending when its host ran out of money.

Hosting such a feast assured a couple honor and prestige both in their village and, per their beliefs, in the afterlife. A couple who had hosted the Feast of Merit would be allowed to place images of a gayal (a relative of the water buffalo) on their home, such as this panel on display in the Enlightenment Gallery at Discovery Park of America. The lower part of the panel is a series of gayal carvings, while the top of the panel represents the Naga villagers who are visibly pleased with the feast.

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Tennessee State Fossil: The Pterotrigonia thoracica

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March 23, 2020 – In 1998, the Tennessee state legislature adopted Pterotrigonia thoracica, a saltwater clam, as its state fossil. This fossil is found exclusively in West Tennessee in the 70-million year old Coon Creek Formation. The Coon Creek Formation, primarily in McNairy County, is one of the most significant fossil sites in the world and has produced some of the most well-preserved fossils from the Cretaceous Period. The deposits formed when sea level was much higher than it is today and the seashore ran along what is now the Tennessee River corridor. West Tennessee was a shallow sea! Discovery Park of America hosts a permanent Coon Creek Formation exhibit which includes two specimens of Pterotrigonia thoracica.

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The Tyrannosaurus rex

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March 23, 2020 – The Tyrannosaurus rex specimen on display in Dinosaur Hall at Discovery Park of America is a plaster replica of one of the most famous dinosaurs ever recovered – Stan the T. rex. Stan was discovered in the spring of 1987 in Harding County, South Dakota by an amateur paleontologist named Stanley Sacrison. It is customary for a dinosaur to be given a common name after its finder (hence Stan), although each has a distinct catalog identification number as well. At the time of his discovery, Stan was the largest T. rex to have been found, though he is now third in that category.

During his life, Stan fought with another T. rex and suffered a broken neck as a result – this is indicated by a number of puncture wounds near the base of the skull that match T. rex teeth, as well as fused cervical vertebra. The fusion of the vertebra suggests than Stan survived this attack and lived for years afterwards! It is believed that Stan died at about 24 years old before being buried in sand and lost to time for 65 million years before being unearthed by humans. In 2013, Discovery Park of America joined a small elite family of museums that house a replica of this historically and scientifically significant dinosaur.

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Guest Blogger: Nathaniel Newlin