150 



Haakon Schetelig. 



[No. 8 



typology, as some irregular specimens are explained by the fact 

 that brooches representing different stages of development were in 

 use at the same time and probably sometimes also by the same 

 person. The importance of this has been set out already at some 

 places in the previous typologieal description. But from the latter 

 half of the 6th cent. I know no finds where cruciform brooches 

 of older forms are found associated with antiquities from that late 

 time; it seems as if the type had suddenly disappeared about the 

 middle of the century leaving only a few and insignificant descen- 

 dants. The most satisfactory explanation of this fact is the sup- 

 position that the type got totally out of fashion about that time 

 and that eonsequently the still existing brooches of the cruciform 

 type were generally no more used even if they were practically 

 well lit for use. They may have been for the most part gradually 



Fj>. 193 



Fio-. 194. i/ 



recast into ornaments better corresponding to the taste of the time. 

 I cannot otherwise explain why the brooches which were made at the 

 beginning of the 6th cent. should not as well be occasionally met 

 with in graves from a later part of the century, as brooches from 

 the middle of the 5th cent. are occasionally found in graves from 

 the earlier half of the 6th cent. This explanation seems also in 

 itself to be a reasonable one. As long as cruciform brooches were 

 still made in great numbers and commonly used, some older speci- 

 mens were naturally oftener preserved than at a time when new 

 and modern brooches of the same form were never seen. It is 

 certain at least, that no specimen of the marked varieties which 

 belong to the first part of the 6th cent. have been found in asso- 

 ciation with antiquities from the following time, and among the 

 cruciform brooches from the latter half of the century only one is 

 of so characteristic form and of suen dimensions that it may be 

 considered as continuating the previous development. 



