1,900-year-old Roman papyrus details elaborate tax evasion scheme, research suggests [Video]

If you thought you would find few parallels between today’s world and the world of 2,000 years ago, or you feel like you’re the only one dealing with taxes on seemingly everything, think again. 

According to a recent analysis of a 1,900-year-old papyrus from ancient Rome, taxes and tax evasion have existed for millenia. 

“It was an incredibly lucky rediscovery that brought this publication to light eventually,” Anna Dolganov, a historian and papyrologist of the Roman Empire with the Austrian Archaeological Institute, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

“It’s extremely historically substantial. It’s one of those documents that very few scholars get to work on in the whole of their career.”

The papyrus, found in the Judean desert in the 1950s, includes a tale of two men who lived in a border region between two Roman provinces. The scroll, written by a prosecutor in preparation for a tax evasion trial, accuses the men of an elaborate scheme involving the bogus sale and then manumission of enslaved persons.

There were …