W. Marc Gilfillan, CPA, NC, individual and business CPA and Tax expert, shares about the history of taxes…
The Rosetta Stone, unearthed by Napoleon, was possibly the absolute most important Egyptian archaeological find to date. The Stone had the same writing in three different languages: hieroglyphics, demotic (also called Egyptian script) and Greek. Using the Greek version, archaeologists figured out how to understand the demotic and subsequently the hieroglyphs. However, the question is sustained: Egyptians had a form of paper, named papyrus, so why was the work carved in stone? Furthermore, why three languages? And why Greek?
The Stone has been in existence since 3000 B.C. The Rosetta Stone was carved around 200 B.C. during the reign of Ptolemy V (a king of Greek descent). So what happened to the Pharaohs? By this point in history, Egypt had been conquered in 700 B.C. by the Assyrians, then the Persians, and eventually the Greeks in 330 B.C. After an existence of 2000+ years, Egypt was in decline.
The Ptolemy dynasty were by and large good kings, but in 200BC, during which the Rosetta Stone was etched, Egypt had recently ended a ten year long civil war. The civil war broke out because of exorbitant and oppressing taxation strengthened by corrupt Greek tax collectors. As the war ceased there was continuous unrest. Ptolemy V put into a effect a Proclamation of Peace which gave general amnesty for any rebel and tax debtors, reigned in tax laws, ceased forced conscription into the navy, and reinstated 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 turned out to be a great edge and monetary windfall for the priests and temples and they desired to make sure first everyone knew it and, secondly, did not want it to be thrown away again at a point in the future.
As a result, “Rosetta Stones” were etched and put at the entrance of every temple throughout Egypt. The Rosetta stones proclaimed to everyone that tax exemption 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.
This still leaves the question: why carved into stone? The answer is because the priests wanted to make sure it would not disappear or able to be simply disposed. Another question was why was it written in three languages? The Stone was written in three languages so that all may see and heed the proclamation the priesthood desired to spread to all of the country. The stone was written in Greek to be crystal clear to the king’s tax collectors that they could not even come inside the temple gates.
As a result of the most important Egyptian archaeological find in history, the stone unraveled the weird language of the Egyptians, made us capable of discovering the key to hieroglyphic writing and thereby the secret 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.
http://www.marccpa.com/