Rule and revenue in Egypt and Rome: political stability and fiscal institutions

'In diesem Artikel werden die Bestimmungsfaktoren für Finanzinstitutionen und Steuerlasten mit Hilfe einer Fallstudie aus der Antike untersucht. Auf diese Weise soll Levis Modell der Besteuerung, entwickelt an der Besteuerung im antiken Römischen Reich, überprüft werden. Dieses Modell impliziert, dass hohe Diskontraten in Zeiten politischer Instabilität Herrscher dazu verleiten rücksichtslosere Finanzregime zu errichten. Die Belege fiskalischer Reformen während des Übergangs Roms von der Republik zum Prinzipat scheinen diese Hypothese zu unterstützen. Trotzdem ist dieser Zusammenhang unter Historikern immer noch Anlass für Diskussionen. Ägyptens Übergang vom hellenistischen Königreich zur römischen Provinz unter dem Prinzipat stellt einen analogen Fall dar, für den allerdings bessere Daten zur Verfügung stehen. Im Einklang mit der Hypothese von Levi zeigt sich auch hier ein Zusammenhang zwischen Diskontrate und Finanzregimen.' (Autorenreferat)'This paper investigates what determines fiscal institutions and the burden of taxation using a case study from ancient history. It evaluates Levi's model of taxation in the Roman Republic, according to which rulers' high discount rates in periods of political instability encourage them to adopt a more predatory fiscal regime. The evidence for fiscal reform in the transition from the Republic to the Principate seems to support her hypothesis but remains a matter of debate among historians. Egypt's transition from a Hellenistic kingdom to a Roman province under the Principate provides an analogous case for which there are better data. The Egyptian evidence shows a correlation between rulers' discount rates and fiscal regimes that is consistent with Levi's hypothesis.' (author's abstract

Egyptian priests in Ptolemaic Tebtunis: Administration, associations, and economy

This thesis provides an overview and interpretation of the available documentary evidence and its material context concerning the temple of Soknebtunis in Tebtunis during the Ptolemaic period. This study comes at a time when new excavations and new projects for major collections are on the verge of considerably multiplying the amount of evidence. While the accumulation of data is welcome, it is also necessary to re-evaluate the Tebtunis papyri housed in the Cairo Museum, which have been largely neglected since they were catalogued in 1908. Based primarily on this evidence, the thesis outlines the temple personnel, including their administrative and professional duties, while attempting to illustrate the social and economic relationships of the temple of Soknebtunis with local cult associations and with a prominent family in the village. The first chapter addresses the relationship of the Tebtunis papyri to their archaeological context through an overview of excavations and of projects to publish texts. The second chapter sketches some basic features of temple organization by analyzing priestly titles and the activities of their holders. The third chapter tries to establish the role of formal associations for social and cult gatherings in the temple community. The fourth chapter attempts to determine the social status and economic basis of a family of priests over the second and first centuries BC. Although the publication of new data may necessitate future revisions, this study provides a framework for the organization of the temple of Soknebtunis in the Ptolemaic period

Gender and vocal production mode discrimination using the high frequencies for speech and singing

Humans routinely produce acoustical energy at frequencies above 6 kHz during vocalization, but this frequency range is often not represented in communication devices and speech perception research. Recent advancements toward high-definition (HD) voice and extended bandwidth hearing aids have increased the interest in the high frequencies. The potential perceptual information provided by high-frequency energy (HFE) is not well characterized. We found that humans can accomplish tasks of gender discrimination and vocal production mode discrimination (speech vs. singing) when presented with acoustic stimuli containing only HFE at both amplified and normal levels. Performance in these tasks was robust in the presence of low-frequency masking noise. No substantial learning effect was observed. Listeners also were able to identify the sung and spoken text (excerpts from “The Star-Spangled Banner”) with very few exposures. These results add to the increasing evidence that the high frequencies provide at least redundant information about the vocal signal, suggesting that its representation in communication devices (e.g., cell phones, hearing aids, and cochlear implants) and speech/voice synthesizers could improve these devices and benefit normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners

The perceptual significance of high-frequency energy in the human voice

While human vocalizations generate acoustical energy at frequencies up to (and beyond) 20 kHz, the energy at frequencies above about 5 kHz has traditionally been neglected in speech perception research. The intent of this paper is to review (1) the historical reasons for this research trend and (2) the work that continues to elucidate the perceptual significance of high-frequency energy (HFE) in speech and singing. The historical and physical factors reveal that, while HFE was believed to be unnecessary and/or impractical for applications of interest, it was never shown to be perceptually insignificant. Rather, the main causes for focus on low-frequency energy appear to be because the low-frequency portion of the speech spectrum was seen to be sufficient (from a perceptual standpoint), or the difficulty of HFE research was too great to be justifiable (from a technological standpoint). The advancement of technology continues to overcome concerns stemming from the latter reason. Likewise, advances in our understanding of the perceptual effects of HFE now cast doubt on the first cause. Emerging evidence indicates that HFE plays a more significant role than previously believed, and should thus be considered in speech and voice perception research, especially in research involving children and the hearing impaired