Researchers have translated a rare ancient Egyptian land-transfer tax receipt.
Written in Greek on a piece of pottery, the receipt states that a person (the name is unreadable) and his friends paid a land-transfer tax that came to 75 “talents” (a unit of currency), with a 15-talent charge added on. The tax was paid in coins and was delivered to a public bank in a city called Diospolis Magna (also known as Luxor or Thebes).
But just how much was 90 talents worth in ancient Egypt?
“It’s an incredibly large sum of money,” said Brice Jones, a Ph.D. student at Concordia University in Montreal, who translated the text. “These Egyptians were most likely very wealthy.”
Story: Owen Jarus, LiveScience | Photo: Rare Books and Special Collections, McGill University Library and Archives
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