20 



Haakon Schetelig. 



[No. 8 



brooches about the same time have come into use over the whole 

 district mentioned. They were in use from the latter half of the 

 4th cent. through the 5th and part of the 6th cent,; in England 

 probably even towards the end of the 6th cent. 



In this space of time, Scandinavia and England have produced 

 innumerable variations of the cruciform brooches, and all the time 

 many different forms must have been used contemporarily. As is 

 well known to all students of prehistoric typology, it is impossible 

 from the state of typological development of a brooch directly to 

 conclude at what time it came into the grave together with its 

 possessor, nor can we from its form only in all cases make out the 

 date of its manufacture. It ought to be remembered as a main 

 principle of all typological development that only the best executed, 



commonly also the largest and 

 most ornamented, specimens 

 are an exact expression of the 

 style of the day, the eheaper 

 and less carefully executed 

 specimens at the same time 

 very oftenshowing degenerated 

 variations of an earlier fashion. 

 The folio wing typological series 

 is then to be regarded in some 

 degree as a generalisation of 

 facts in order to explain the main 

 features of development. Later 

 Fig. 22. Vi- on ^ shall try to give an ac- 



count of all the irregular com- 

 binations shown by the material from the graves; it will best be 

 done in connexion with some remarks about the chronology of the 

 different forms. 



2. The early cruciform brooches 



are, as we have seen, in all respects closely connected with their 

 prototype (flg. 17 — 19), but already from their first stage we have 

 to note certain changes, brought about partly through influences 

 from other types, partly owing to the tastes of the Northern 

 people at that time. As has been mentioned, some Roman brooches, 



