Ancient Egypt
Turtle "Shetyw", "Shetw", "Sheta", "shtyw" was common in Ancient Egyptian Art (especially Predynastic and Old Kingdom art). Turtle fossils are the most common reptiles found in the Fayoum, including Testudo ammon, a tortoise as large as those living on the Galapagos Islands today. Charles Andrews first discovered these tortoises in the early 20th century.
Predynastic slate palettes represent freshwater (soft carapace, Trionyx triunguis) turtles as does the hieroglyph for "turtle" in which the chelonian is always represented from above. Zoomorphic palettes were commonly made in the shapes of turtles.A stone vase in the form of a turtle was found in Naqada. Other art representations of turtles in Ancient Egypt were common.
The earliest representations of the Nile turtle date back to pre-dynastic times and were associated with magical significance that was meant to ward off evil. Amulets and objects with depictions of the turtles represent the turtle as a force to defend health and life.
Among Ptah's many creatures, Shetw (Tortoise, Turtle) was neither especially remarkable nor esteemed. Though excluded from lists of animal offerings to the deities, there are nevertheless great quantities of turtle and tortoise bones associated with archaeology at the great ceremonial complex at Heirakonpolis in Upper Egypt. This may suggests that sacrifices of Chelonians served some ritual or liturgical purpose within the ancient Egyptian ceremonial system.
As an aquatic animal, the turtle was associated with the Underworld. The turtle was associated with Set, and so with the enemies of Ra who tried to stop the solar barque as it traveled through the underworld. Since the XIXth Dynasty, and particularly in the Late and Greco-Roman periods, turtles were known to have been ritually speared by kings and nobles as evil creatures.
The famous Hunters Palette shows most of the hunters carrying a kind of shield which was interpreted as a turtle-carapace shield. In an Early Dynastic tomb at Helwan a man was buried beneath the carapace of a tortoise who had lost his feet in an accident. The carapace may symbolize the "way in which the owner used to move slowly like a tortoise," or sitting in the carapace may have been a very useful way for the owner to move around.
The Medical Ebers Papyrus cites the use of turtle carapaces and organs in some formulas, including one formula for the removal of hair. An ointment made from the brain of a turtle was the treatment for squirting. Parts of turtles were used to grind eye paint, which was applied both as a cosmetic and to protect eyes from infection and over-exposure to sun, dust, wind, and insects.
The flesh of Trionyx was eaten from Predynastic times to as late as the Old Kingdom, and later the flesh of turtles began to be considered an "abomination of Ra" and the role of these animals became an evil one. Turtle carapaces and scutes from Red Sea Turtles (Chelonia Imbricata)were used in rings, bracelets, dishes, bowls, knife hilts, amulets, and combs. Land tortoise carapaces from Testudo Kleinmanni were used as sounding boards for lutes, harps and mandolins. Turtle shells were also used to make norvas, an instrument resembling a banjo.
In a meticulously documented discussion, Fischer traces the Nile turtle's decline in popularity as food, showing that while eaten in Predynastic, Archaic, and Old Kingdom periods, turtles were used only for medicinal purposes after the Old Kingdom. Carapaces were used well into the New Kingdom. In reliefs and paintings of the Old, Middle, and Early New Kingdoms, the turtle is depicted rarely, and is depicted as an innocuous reptile. After Dynasty XIX, the turtle is usually depicted as a malignant creature associated with Apophis and subject to ritual extermination. Fischer shows that in Predynastic and Archaic times, objects of daily use, such as cosmetic palettes, dishes, and vessels, were made in the shapes of turtles, while after the Old and Middle Kingdoms representations of turtles are more often found on amuletic objects and furniture. After the Middle Kingdom, the turtle's shape is very rarely associated with any object which would come into close contact with a person, a fact which reflects the increasing explicit hostility shown to turtles in scenes and texts.
Read more about this topic: Cultural Depictions Of Turtles And Tortoises, In Mythology, Legends, and Folklore
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