I. Typological description of the cruciform brooches. 



1. Origin of the type. 



The term .„The cruciform brooch" as it is generally used by 

 the Scandinavian archaeologists especially means that Teutonic form 

 the upper part of which consists of a square flat plate, attached to 

 the bow on one side and bearing on each of the other three sides 

 a moulded knob. This cross-like part of the brooch which has 

 given its name to the type, is constantly preserved through the many 

 varying stages of development, and also gives an undisputable proof 

 that the different forms enclosed by this signification, though often 

 much diverging from each other, must all be derived from a common 

 origin. They are a branch of that large class of brooches commonly 

 called the cross-bow brooches, a class which has best preserved 

 many of the features of the early brooches with returned foot, and 

 consequently they belong to that family of brooches which, during 

 the last two centuries of the Roman empire, were used all over 

 Western Europe, both in the Roman provinces and in the Teutonic 

 districts. 



Before entering upon our special research into the origin of the 

 Teutonic cruciform brooches, we must make out the limits of our 

 subject by excluding those forms which, although apparently similar 

 to our series and in all cases closely allied to it, have not directly 

 contributed to the main development of the type nere in question. 



In the different parts of Western and Northern Europe we tind 

 in the 4th cent. A. D. a number of local variations of the cross-bow 

 brooch. Of these variations we may at once put aside the Prussian 

 forms, where the spring-coil always is very long and whose foot 

 in its later development gets that particular shape called the 



