The clay tablets of ancient Sumer represent some of the earliest examples of economic record-keeping. In the city of Uruk, scribes used reed styluses to press proto-cuneiform symbols into wet clay, documenting grain, livestock and labor owed to temples. Each mark stood for a tangible asset—a bundle of wheat, a head of cattle or a day’s work. By around 2,600 B.C., in the city of Lagash, the system had grown more sophisticated, with some tablets recording instances of tax evasion and penalties for non-payment.

The Standard of Ur, a wooden box inlaid with lapis lazuli, shell and red limestone, offers a striking visual of early resource distribution. One side shows nobles at a feast; the other, soldiers and laborers—an implicit hierarchy supported by the upward flow of goods. Though not a literal tax record, the artifact reflects a redistributive economy likely sustained by tribute or taxation.

The Stele of Hammurabi, a 4,000-year-old Babylonian monument now housed in the Louvre, stands over seven feet tall and bears one of history’s earliest legal codes. At its top, a relief shows King Hammurabi receiving the laws from the sun god Shamash. While best known for its principle of “an eye for an eye,” the code also formalized taxation, detailing how much grain farmers owed, rents landholders paid and how debts were to be settled. By codifying commerce and tribute, it turned tax collection into law, introducing early forms of tax brackets and property assessments.

Nilometers—structures once used to gauge the Nile’s flood levels—served as an early tool for predicting harvests and setting taxes. Abundant floods meant plentiful crops and higher taxes. Low waters warned of scarcity, prompting reduced tax burdens. “The measurement of the flooding of the Nile started all the way back in the Old Kingdom with the Palermo stone and continued until the 20th century,” says Robert Littman, a professor of classics at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa.

Made of stone or marble, nilometers came in three forms: a river column, a stairway to the water, or a well connected by a culvert. Fewer than two dozen have been discovered. One of the best-preserved examples, located on Elephantine Island near Aswan, features inscribed steps that allowed officials to monitor the river’s rise

 “This nilometer is of great significance, particularly because it may be the one mentioned by the Greek writer Plutarch in the first century A.D.,” says Littman.

The Assyrian Empire immortalized its power through elaborate palace reliefs, wall carvings that depicted conquered peoples presenting offerings to the king. These tributes, featuring camels, gold and exotic animals like ostriches, served as both a form of taxation and a visual assertion of imperial power. The scenes reinforced the king’s authority, illustrating how wealth from across the empire was funneled into the heart of Assyria.

The Rosetta Stone, one of the most famous artifacts in history, is best known for unlocking the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphs—but it also sheds light on ancient tax policy. Carved from granodiorite, a dense speckled stone similar to granite, the inscription contains a decree from Pharaoh Ptolemy V granting tax exemptions to temple priests and revising tribute requirements. Before the Ptolemaic era, temples had long served as Egypt’s economic and financial centers, playing a key role in tax collection. 

“After Alexander's conquest and the establishment of the Ptolemaic dynasty, financial control shifted away from temples to a new state-run taxation system,” says Irene Soto Marín, assistant professor of classics at Harvard University. “This reduced the temples’ economic power, although the Ptolemies still recognized their cultural significance. To maintain social stability and prevent revolts, which were often triggered by taxes, they granted priests and temples certain tax breaks as part of a broader political strategy.” 

It's a rare instance where a tax cut was literally immortalized in stone.

Before the invention of paper, the Chinese recorded tax policies and official records on bamboo slips—narrow, flat strips of bamboo or wood inscribed with brush and ink. These slips were then strung together with cords, forming scroll-like volumes that functioned as early books. 

Slips have been discovered at archaeological sites dating to the Qin and Han Dynasties, containing detailed records of tax registers, agricultural levies, census data and corvée labor obligations. These documents provide a clear view of the highly organized bureaucracy of early imperial China, where taxation was based on land ownership, crop yields and household labor.