A Lesson from History About Taxation, Part Three: Tax Law 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, unearthed by Napoleon, was perhaps the most helpful Egyptian archaeological discovery to date. The Stone had duplicated text in 3 different languages: Egyptian hieroglyphs, demotic (known as Egyptian script) and Greek. Using the Greek version, archaeologists were able to decipher the demotic and then the pictographs. However, the question is sustained: Egyptians had paper, called papyrus, so why was the writing carved into a rock? Furthermore, why three languages? And why Greek?

The Stone has been in existence before 3000 B.C. The Rosetta Stone was carved in 200 B.C. while Ptolemy V was in power (a king of Greek origin). So what happened to the Pharaohs? By this point in history, Egypt was taken over in 700 B.C. by the Assyrians, after that the Persians, and finally the Greeks in 330 B.C. After reigning 2000+ years, Egypt was in decline.

The Ptolemy dynasty were by and large good rulers, but in 200BC, when the Rosetta Stone was carved, Egypt had just concluded a decade long civil war. The civil struggle started over excessive and oppressing taxes strengthened by corrupt Greek tax collectors. When the war ended there was still much unrest. Ptolemy V created a Proclamation of Peace which gave general amnesty for all rebels and tax debtors, lowered taxation practices, eliminated forced conscription into the navy, and restored tax exemption to the priesthood, temples, and their crops and lands, as it had been in the days of the great pharaohs. If you’re feeling the pressure with today’s taxes, call a Cary NC Accountant for all your tax-related needs!

This was a great edge and financial windfall for the priesthood and temples and they desired to make certain first all people knew it and, secondly, didn’t want it to be taken away again at a point in the future.

As a result, “Rosetta Stones” were etched and placed 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 collectors. Go here if you want help with modern-day Tax Preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll in Raleigh NC.

This still leaves the question: why written in stone? The answer? Because the priesthood desired to make sure it wouldn’t disappear or able to be easily destroyed. Another question was why was it written in three languages? The Stone was carved in three languages because all may see and follow the proclamation the priesthood wanted to spread to all people of the country. It was written in Greek to be very direct to the king’s tax men that they couldn’t even go in the temple gates.

As a result of the most important Egyptian archaeological discovery in history, the Rosetta Stone unraveled the mysterious language of the Egyptians, enabled us to discover the secrets of hieroglyphic writing and thereby the key to unlocking the mystery of ancient Egypt 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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