Online Calculator | The History of Taxation, Part 3: Taxes in Ancient Egypt and The Rosetta Stone

The History of Taxation, Part 3: Taxes in Ancient Egypt and The Rosetta Stone

W. Marc Gilfillan

W. Marc Gilfillan, CPA, NC, individual and business CPA and Tax expert, shares about the history of taxes…

The Rosetta Stone, discovered by Napoleon, was possibly the most important Egyptian archaeological find to date. The Stone had duplicated text in 3 different languages: Egyptian hieroglyphs, demotic (known as Egyptian script) and Greek. Using the Greek translation, archaeologists were able to decipher the demotic and then the hieroglyphics. However, the question remains: Egyptians had paper, named papyrus, so why was the writing carved into stone? Also, why 3 languages? And why Greek?

The Stone has been around since 3000 B.C. The Rosetta Stone was created around 200 B.C. during the reign of Ptolemy V (an emperor of Greek descent). So where did the Pharaohs go? By this time, Egypt had been conquered in 700 B.C. by the Assyrians, after that the Persians, and eventually the Greeks in 330 B.C. After existing for 2000+ years, Egypt was finally declining.

The Ptolemy’s were by and large decent rulers, but in 200BC, during which the Rosetta Stone was created, Egypt had just concluded a decade long civil war. The civil struggle started over excessive and oppressive taxation put in place by tough Greek tax collectors. As the struggle ended there was still much unrest. Ptolemy V mandated a Proclamation of Peace which granted general amnesty for all rebels and tax debtors, eased tax laws, eliminated forced draft into the navy, and restored tax immunity to the priesthood, temples, and their crops and lands, as it had been in the reign of the great pharaohs. If you are feeling the pressure with today’s taxes, call a Cary NC Accountant for all your tax-related needs!

This was a great edge and monetary windfall for the priests and temples and they wanted to make certain first everyone knew it and, also, didn’t want it to be taken away again at a point in the future.

As a result, “Rosetta Stones” were etched and put in front of each temple in Egypt. The Rosetta stones acted as warnings to everyone that tax immunity had been given to the priests and this temple and was a “Do Not Enter” sign to curtail the lawlessness of the king’s tax men. Go here if you want help with modern-day Tax Preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll in Cary NC.

All of this still leaves the question: why carved in stone? The answer is because the priesthood wanted to make sure it would not fade in history or able to be easily disposed. Another question was why put it in 3 languages? The Stone was written in 3 languages because all could read and heed the command the priests wanted to spread to all people of the country. It was written in Greek to be especially clear to the king’s tax collectors that they couldn’t even go in the temple gates.

So, the most important Egyptian archaeological find in history, the stone unraveled the mysterious language of the Egyptians, enabled us to discover the key to hieroglyphic writing and thereby the secret to unlocking the history and the understanding of the Egyptian way of life for 3000 years was, in fact, a tax document.

Keep an eye out for W. Marc Gilfillan’s next chapter in his History of Taxes series: Taxes and The Colussus of Rhodes.

http://www.marccpa.com/

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