The sociocultural significance of the Nabatean illustrations and their influence on pictorial mentalities in Central Arabia

The Nabatean illustrations showcase a rich trove of the time-honored leitmotifs of its neighbors and the autochthonous mentalities. The tradition was grown, expanded, and echoed down the ages, with some motifs appropriated, mutatis mutandis, in neighboring regions, especially in its southern neighbor – Central Arabia. The main questions this study attempts to answer are: What are the myriad mentalities of the Nabataean illustrations, not least their sociocultural signification? And how and to what extent these mentalities informed the pictorial mentalities of Arabs residing in Central Arabia? Adopting a sociocultural and anthropological approach and examining the various pieces of evidence (notably the material finds reported by anthropologists), the social signification and function of images in the daily lives of the people, such as the all-pervasive influence of images and the temporary interdiction against the depiction of humans on tombstones, are investigated. The Nabatean mentalities are shown to have permeated Arabian society via a variety of cultural conduits like commercial exchanges and, more conspicuously, through the importing of figurines of goddesses like ʿUzza/Isis, which culminated in major cultural resemblances between the Nabatean and Arabian cultures.