This house, The Armour-Stiner house is a pretty unusual and fascinating one to look through. I'd not heard of it before today, but my fellow southern friend shared it stating, "I've always loved this house."; she even posted it an entire month ago and I failed to notice until now. I'm clicking through the photo's and come across the photo just before this one, showing more of the room and only part of the ceiling, "Hey, it's that tomb ceiling I know!", meaning I've seen it on a few shows concerning Ancient Egypt, but I do get the names of all the things muddled. If you're curious, I was referring to the Tomb of Nefertari. But there's a problem with dates and also portrayal. The Facebook post and the website list 1860 as a date for the house. But in the about section of the website they state 1872 as the date of the house. I looked up all the starry ceilings that I know about (even a broader search) and they would not have been rediscovered by white people (so therefore would not be available knowledge to other wealthy white people in 1872 or earlier); yet the house site states that the house was restored to it's 1872 appearance.
So, for starry ceilings that look exactly like this (so at the time of discovery one would know they were small gold stars on this colour blue background), you'll find The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut (aka Djeser-Djeseru) in 1891 & The Tomb of Nefertari (QV66) in 1904. For larger stars (either no longer or were still retaining colour at the time of discovery and now) you have The Tomb of Thutmose III (KV34) discovered in 1898, The Tomb of Merenptah (KV8) in 1903, The White Chapel of Senusret I (aka The Jubilee Chapel of Senusret I) in 1927, The Pyramid of Teti at Saqqara in 1905, & The Pyramid of Unas Burial Chamber at Saqqara in 1899. For small stars meeting the criteria (yet not on the ceiling, but as an upper wall border near the ceiling) we have The Temple of Hathor at Dendera (which no one will tell me when a white person rediscovered it - this does has bearing for the time period. Even if the site wasn't lost to locals and they knew about it and showed a white person, it was still considered that a white person discovered it and what one would read about or know of in social circles for the time period. There was no re-discovery (that's a new concept and term), or "the locals have always known about it." because to wealthy white people at the time, brown people didn't matter. It's harsh, but it's true. I'm not saying it's a correct way of thinking, but that's what it was). None of the sites really match up with the 1872 (or before) dating. One might think that people might take liberties, but that only goes so far. Perhaps the hieroglyphs around the room at the Armour-Stiner mansion don't matter and anything could have been put there, cobbled from various sources. Only one might even possibly fit the bill (in reference to the ceiling) for someone in 1872 knowing about it and that would be the Temple of Hathor since no one will give me a date. Perhaps it's been known since Roman times or perhaps because of Napoleans troops. But there's a problem with it. Though the stars are the correct size and the colours are all there, the owner of the house (or his wife, whoever wanted this room decorated in this fashion - probably the wife), would not have seen an upper wall border of stars and decide to have it for the entire ceiling. Things people liked then are the same as now. This woman saw a ceiling of stars and wanted a damn ceiling of stars. It's what you or I would do. If all we'd seen was an upper wall border of stars, then that's what we'd want. So, the house is lying. That room was not decorated when the house was built in 1872 unless they're neglecting to mention that the home owners had a time machine in order to travel to the ancient past or else about about twenty years into the future. The only true matches would be Hatshepsut and Nefertari in 1891 and 1904. But there's also other factors to consider. If her husband or herself were not totally hyped up on Egyptology, then they wouldn't be in the inner circle of knowing about discoveries when they happen (it would take at least a month, if not months for news to reach them & that's if they are in the inner circle of Egyptology - & that has variables too. Is it word of mouth? Are they traveling to England and are at a party, is the story being told by the discoverer himself? Or did it take longer for the news to cross the Atlantic? Is it still being told by a random third party person or by the discoverer?); otherwise they'd have to wait to read about the news in the paper, which news about a starry skied ceiling could take years to be in the papers. Besides the fact that there are no colour photographs during this time. Most newspapers also did not print full colour artist renderings of things. So, say they did have just a black and white photo or drawing of the stars and then were told the colours were blue and gold? Still doesn't explain how they managed to get the exact shade of blue, because you can't convey that simply through words. No, the person who wanted this room done saw which ever of those two ceilings. They either went to Egypt and toured the tomb or the mortuary temple, or else went to an Egyptian Hall and saw either a full colour artist rendition showing the exact colour blue, or a fragment of said ceiling (an Egyptian Hall were places in big cities built to look like some Ancient Egyptian building with built replicas or stolen artifacts and full colour art so that you could see Egypt without actually having to go) either in Europe or in the states, or they knew a wealthy purchaser of Ancient Egyptian things who had a full colour art piece depicting the site (something he would have seen himself, the purchaser/collector and recorded), or he'd purchased or stolen a piece of ceiling. (You think I'm kidding but these Egyptologists of the day would steal anything, so while I don't know if it happened, it certainly is a possibility), or else they knew a person who knew the discover, or else the discoverer himself; Ernesto Schiaparelli (the director of the Egyptian Museum in Turin) for the Tomb of Nefertari or whoever discovered the mortuary temple, because people probably knew back in 1904, but no one seems to know now. Unless there is another site in ancient Egypt who has a ceiling exactly like the tomb or the mortuary temple (which look exactly like the ceiling at the Armour-Stiner mansion) that was rediscovered prior to 1872, then that mansion in New York is mistaken. They either didn't do a very good job at restoration or they've neglected to realize that their music room simply could not exist with that ceiling until at least 1891 (but probably tack about five years onto that to be safe because of all those variables I noted previously).
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AuthorA girl from South Mississippi who finds herself in exploration. Archives
November 2019
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