The History of Tax Law, Chapter 3: Taxation and The Rosetta Stone
16th November 2009 by Tax Man No CommentsW. 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 important Egyptian archaeological find in history. The Stone had the same writing in 3 different languages: hieroglyphics, demotic (known as 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, named papyrus, so why was the writing carved in a rock? Furthermore, why 3 languages? And why Greek?
The Stone has been around since 3000 B.C. The Rosetta Stone was created around 200 B.C. while Ptolemy V was in power (an emperor of Greek origins). So where did the Pharaohs go? At this time, Egypt had been taken over in 700 B.C. by the Assyrians, after that the Persians, and eventually the Greeks in 330 B.C. After reigning 2000+ years, Egypt was in decline.
The Ptolemy’s were for the most part decent rulers, but in 200BC, during which the Rosetta Stone was etched, Egypt had recently ended a decade long civil war. The civil struggle started over excessive and oppressing taxation put in place by tough Greek tax collectors. As the struggle ceased there was continuous unrest. Ptolemy V issued a Proclamation of Peace which gave forgiveness for all rebels and tax debtors, reigned in taxation practices, stopped forced conscription into the navy, and restored tax immunity to the priests, temples, and their crops and lands, as it had been in the reign of the ancient 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 superb edge and financial ease 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 some point in the future.
As a result, “Rosetta Stones” were etched and placed at the entrance of every temple throughout Egypt. The Rosetta stones acted as warnings to all 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 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 carved into stone? The answer is because the priesthood wanted to make sure it would not disappear or able to be simply destroyed. Another question was why write it in three languages? The Stone was written in 3 languages so that everyone may see and heed the proclamation the priests wanted to send to all people of Egypt. The stone was written in Greek to be especially direct to the king’s tax men that they could not even come in the gates of the temple.
As a result of the most important Egyptian archaeological find in history, the stone translated the mysterious language of the Egyptians, made us capable of discovering the secrets of hieroglyphic writing and subsequently the key to unlocking the history and the understanding of the Egyptian empire 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.
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