A Lesson from History About Taxation, Chapter Three: Taxes in Ancient Egyptian Life and The Rosetta Stone
by Guest Author on December 23, 2009
in General
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
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 absolute most important Egyptian archaeological discovery in history. The Stone had duplicated text in 3 different languages: Egyptian hieroglyphs, demotic (Egyptian script) and Greek. Using the Greek version, archaeologists figured out how to understand the demotic and then the hieroglyphics. But the question is sustained: Egyptians had paper, known today as papyrus, so why was the writing carved into a rock? Also, why 3 languages? And why Greek?
The Stone has been in existence before 3000 B.C. The Rosetta Stone was etched in 200 B.C. while Ptolemy V was in power (an emperor of Greek origins). So where did the Pharaohs go? At this point in history, Egypt was conquered in 700 B.C. by the Assyrians, then the Persians, and finally the Greeks in 330 B.C. After an existence of 2000+ years, Egypt was in decline.
The Ptolemy’s were for the most part good rulers, but around 200BC, when the Rosetta Stone was carved, Egypt had recently ended a ten year long civil war. The civil war broke out over excessive and oppressing taxes strengthened by corrupt Greek tax collectors. When the struggle ceased there was still much unrest. Ptolemy V created a Proclamation of Peace which gave forgiveness for all rebels and tax debtors, eased taxation practices, stopped forced draft into the navy, and reinstated tax immunity to the priesthood, temples, and their crops and lands, as it had been in the reign of the ancient pharaohs. If you’re feeling the pressure with today’s taxes, call a Raleigh NC Accountant for all your tax-related needs!
This turned out to be a superb advantage and financial windfall for the priests and temples and they desired to be sure first all people knew it and, second, did not desire it to be thrown away again at a time in the future.
As a result, “Rosetta Stones” were carved and placed at the entrance of every temple in Egypt. The Rosetta stones proclaimed to everyone that tax exemption had been granted to the priesthood and this temple and acted as a “Do Not Enter” sign to cease 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 begs the question: why carved in stone? The answer? Because the priesthood wanted to make sure it would not fade in history or able to be simply destroyed. Another question was why write it in 3 languages? The Stone was written in 3 languages because all could read and heed the message the priests wanted to spread to everyone of the country. The stone was written in Greek to be crystal clear to the king’s tax men that they could not even go in the temple gates.
So, the most important Egyptian archaeological discovery ever, the Rosetta Stone translated the mysterious language of the Egyptians, made us capable of discovering the secrets of hieroglyphic writing and thereby the secret to unlocking the mystery of ancient Egypt and the understanding of the Egyptian empire for 3000 years was, in truth, 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/
