1906] 



The cruciform brooches of Norwav. 



12' 



archaeologists, I attribute the next stage which might be called the 

 early brooches in relief, ornamented for the most part with spirals 

 and other geometrical 

 patterns, to the latter ÆS « S 

 half of the 5th cent. — 

 while I would place the 

 late brooches in relief 

 where animal-motives 

 have replaced the ge- 

 ometrical patterns, to the 

 6th cent, A marked 

 distinction between the 

 earlier and the later of 

 these brooches belonging 

 to the 6th cent. is far- 

 ther established by the 

 gradual degeneration of 

 the animal-figures, as 

 will be cleaiiy observed 

 if we compare the com- 

 plete and well executed 

 figures along the edges 

 of the brooch fig. 170 

 below with the meaning- 

 less patterns of the later 

 brooches (as fig. 191). 



Naturally, these ab- 

 solute datings are given 

 as approximate only and 

 with the reservation al- 

 ready mentioned, but in 



any case it is evident that the large and fine brooches just recorded 

 give a more complete expression of all chauges in taste and style 

 than any other contemporary antiquities and, consequently, that they 



recent find of Nydam, as these mountings and the brooches mentioned are closely 

 allied in the patterns of the ornaments and still more in the technical process 

 of their manufacture. The delicate ornamentation of these, punched or engraved, 

 and decorated with the black enamelled lines of niello, represents a distinct 

 period of the style in Scandinavian ornamentation, a period immediately pre-, 

 ceding the development of relief ornaments and to some extent contemporary 

 with the first geometrical relief patterns. 



v-^S&P 





Fig. 149. »; 



