W. Marc Gilfillan

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 single 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 translation, archaeologists figured out how to decipher the demotic and then the hieroglyphs. But the question is sustained: Egyptians had a form of paper, named papyrus, so why was the work carved in 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 (an emperor of Greek origin). So where did the Pharaohs go? By 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 reigning 2000+ years, Egypt was finally declining.

The Ptolemy dynasty were by and large decent rulers, but in 200BC, during which the Rosetta Stone was created, Egypt had recently concluded a decade long civil war. The internal struggle started because of exorbitant and oppressing taxation strengthened by tough Greek tax collectors. When the struggle ceased there was still much unrest. Ptolemy V mandated a Proclamation of Peace which gave general amnesty for any rebel and tax debtors, reigned in tax laws, stopped forced draft 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’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 great edge and monetary ease for the priests and temples and they desired to make sure first everyone knew it and, second, didn’t want it to be taken away again at some time in the future.

As a result, “Rosetta Stones” were carved and put at the entrance of each temple throughout Egypt. The Rosetta stones proclaimed to everyone that tax immunity had been given to the priests and this temple and was a “Do Not Enter” proclamation to curtail the lawlessness of the king’s tax men. Go here if you want help with modern-day Tax Preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll in Raleigh NC.

All of this still begs the question: why carved in stone? The answer is because the priesthood 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 written in three languages because all may see and follow the proclamation the priests wanted to send to all of Egypt. The stone was written in Greek to be very direct to the king’s tax men that they couldn’t even set foot inside the temple gates.

So, the most important Egyptian archaeological discovery ever, the Rosetta Stone translated the pictographic language of the Egyptians, made us capable of discovering the key to hieroglyphic writing and subsequently the key 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/