Meaning in Ancient North Arabian Carvings

Introduction 8(8) The problem 8(4) The aim 12(1) The method 12(1) The material 13(1) Safaitic inscriptions and pre-Islamic poetry 14(3) Defining Ancient North Arabian Carvings 17(3) Time and Place 17(3) Unspecified 17(1) Thamudic 17(1) Lihyanic 17(1) Safaitic 18(1) Nabataean 18(1) Disappearance of Ancient North Arabian 18(2) A Global Perspective 20(18) Basic characteristics of ANA carvings 20(1) An associative grid 21(1) Graffiti 21(5) The constituents of rock art 26(4) Functions of rock art 30(4) Comparison graffiti - rock art 34(4) Scandinavian runic inscriptions 36(2) The Functions: The State of the Art 38(12) The Texts 50(29) Inventory of sequences 50(20) Summary and conclusion 68(2) Comparison with Hismaic; 70(9) Thamudic; 74(2) Lihyanic 76(3) The Pictures 79(28) Text and picture 79(7) The pictures 86(1) Inventory of motifs 87(7) Iconic meaning 94(9) Interpretation - discussion 103(4) The Sacral Function 107(31) Grave markers 107(13) Burial cairns 108(4) Glosses indicating ``grave;tomb'' 112(1) The case of wgd tr 112(1) Possible grave markers 112(2) Compatibility of {grieving}-passages 114(1) Meaning of introductory 1 115(3) Vessel inscriptions 118(1) Inscriptions in a Roman tomb 118(1) Inscriptions in a Christian sanctuary 119(1) Graffiti with a sacral connection in other languages of the area 120(6) Funerary inscriptions in general 120(1) Seisel: Greek-Nabataean 121(2) Interpretation of Nabatean dkir and slm 123(3) Some Islamic Arabic graffiti 126(4) Msatta 126(1) Dayr Dubban 127(1) Arabian rock inscriptions 128(2) Sacrality of landscape 130(8) The Stone 132(1) Topography: High Places 133(1) Position of carvings in landscape 134(4) Image and Myth 138(34) Man and animal 138(3) Synecdoche referring to animals in pre-Islamic poetry 141(21) Semantic fields of the objects substituted 150(3) Semantic fields of animal substitutions 153(7) Conclusions 160(2) The pictorial narrative 162(10) The parable 162(2) Riding gods of the Arabs 164(5) The hero of the romance 169(1) Conclusions 170(2) SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 172(6) A layering of codes 172(3) Summary 175(3) Bibliography 178