This is quite apropos on the international Web. It logically follows, of course, that an icon that doesn't clearly represent what it is supposed to represent is worse than useless. A little picture of a letter is obviously the place to click if you want to send email to a site's proprietors, but a little picture of a man or a circle or triangle is generally meaningless. If your icons aren't worth a thousand words apiece, ditch them. Also, if you're going to use icons, make sure they fit in with the overall look of the site.
Many sites use a little hierarchical outline at the top of each page, to good effect.
Each of these items is clickable. This setup does not replace navbars, but exists in addition to them. Every page should still have a standard navbar, perhaps on a sidebar and also at the bottom. Many sites use frames as part of their navigational strategy. The frame with the content scrolls, but the frame with the navbar does not, so the navbar is always right there where the user can find it.