Hightower
e.g., Etowah Mound C
ca. A.D. 1275
Williams Island
e.g., Williams Island
ca. A.D. 1450-1650
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Notes:
Another problem with dating all of these styles as contemporary and late is that they show evolutionary relationships in modifications of designs. While temporal and geographic variation can be confused with one another, the spatial distributions of these styles leads us to conclude that the variation is temporal, even if we did not have the stratigraphic and associational evidence that we do.
For example, the Williams Island human figures --the "spaghetti man" on your right -- have the same combinations of elements seen in the Hightower representations. The "spaghetti" elements of the field on the former are partly an elaboration of the talons seen on the earlier human figures. The plume-like elements about the head are related to raccoon and antler elements more naturalistically represented in the earlier style. Many other point-for-point similarities may be drawn between the different styles, but always with the caution that historical derivation does not show that the meaning remains the same. Art history is full of examples of transformations in meaning and form occurring together, as in the archaeologically famous example of the death's heads and cherubs on colonial New England tombstones.