The History of Tax Law, Part 3: Taxation and The Rosetta Stone

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 single most helpful Egyptian archaeological find in history. The Stone had the same writing in 3 different languages: hieroglyphics, demotic (also called Egyptian script) and Greek. Using the Greek translation, archaeologists were able to understand the demotic and then the hieroglyphs. However, the query is sustained: Egyptians had a form of paper, called papyrus, so why was the writing carved into a rock? Also, why 3 languages? And why Greek?

The Stone has been around before 3000 B.C. The Rosetta Stone was carved in 200 B.C. while Ptolemy V was in power (an emperor of Greek origin). So where did the Pharaohs go? By this point in history, Egypt had been conquered in 700 B.C. by the Assyrians, after that the Persians, and eventually 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 kings, but in 200BC, during which the Rosetta Stone was created, Egypt had just ended a 10-year long civil war. The internal struggle broke out over excessive and oppressing taxation put in place by tough Greek tax collectors. As the war ceased there was continuous unrest. Ptolemy V issued a Proclamation of Peace which gave general amnesty for all rebels and tax debtors, eased tax laws, stopped forced conscription into the navy, and restored tax exemption to the priests, temples, and their crops and lands, as it had been in the days 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 turned out to be a superb advantage and financial windfall for the priesthood and temples and they desired to make sure first all people knew it and, secondly, did not desire it to be thrown away again at some time in the future.

As a result, “Rosetta Stones” were created and placed at the entrance of every temple in Egypt. The Rosetta stones acted as warnings to all that tax exemption had been granted to the priests and this temple and was a “Do Not Enter” sign to curtail the lawlessness of the king’s tax collectors. 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 written in stone? The answer is because the priests desired to make sure it wouldn’t disappear or able to be simply destroyed. Another question was why put it in three languages? The Stone was carved in three languages because everyone could see and heed the command the priests desired to spread to everyone of the country. The stone was written in Greek to be especially direct to the king’s tax collectors that they couldn’t even come inside the temple gates.

As a result of the most important Egyptian archaeological find in history, 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 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/