1906] The cruciform brooclies of Norway. 57 



At last may be mentioned that the catch-plate of the pin, 

 being originally as long as the whole foot of the brooch but not 

 very broad, gradually was made shorter and broader and thus by 

 its form gives one of the best indications of the relative stage of 

 development, though not even the form of this detail alone is suffi- 

 cient to admit of a reliable eonclusion. I have seen some brooches, 

 which show in all other parts an advanced transformation, but where 

 the catch-plate reaches from the bow to the nose of the animal- 

 head. Such instances are, however, to be regarcled as exceptions, 

 and I have only noted very few irregularities of this sort. 



Also the ornamentation of the brooches is subject to some 

 changes during the development of the form, as far as it in the 

 early brooches consists nearly exclusively of incised lines and small 

 rigures executed with a punch, while we in the 

 later brooches find a more extended use of 

 groups of concentric circles, drilled in the sur- 

 face with a special instrument. In a few early 

 specimens even figures of silver are found in- 

 laid in the surface, and sometimes is found an 

 ornamentation in relief, though only forming 

 geometric patterns. A brooch of the last sort- 

 is seen fis - . 73. r ) The ornamental part at the 



" r Fig to. 



bow is made of a separate little plate of bronze 

 fastened in an incision in the boAv; the brooch is so muen worn, 

 that the pattern is here no more quite distinct. Along the edges 

 of the plate are placed a series of small Mangles executed with 

 a punch. 



Of these different sorts of ornamentation the punched patterns 

 and the incised lines are also well known from Denmark and Eng- 

 land. The drilled circles, so commonly met with in Eastern Norway, 

 are rare in the brooches from Denmark, and from England I know 

 only one instance of them, which will be especially mentioned in 

 the followino-. The verv extended use of concentric circles as seen 



r ) Langlo, Stokke pgd. Jarlsberg. C. 5951. Ab. 1872, page 103 ss. pl. I, 

 fig. 6. Tliougli this brooch in other respects has not the appearance of an early 

 specimen and, as I will show in the following, really must belong to a relatively 

 late time, its side-knobs are fixed upon the axis of the spring-coil and provided 

 with a groove to keep the edge of the plate. 



