Preface. 
19 most necessary basis for all researches in prehistorie 
arehaeology is an exact knowledge of the øntiquities themselves, as 
it is impossible to draw conelusions from the combinations of anti- 
quities in the graves or from the local distribution of certain types 
without being familiar with the forms of antiquities concerned. 
The study of forms for their own sake is thus quite as indis- 
pensable to the archaeologist as grammatical studies are to the 
linguist, and when published, the value of this study should not be 
estimated from its immediate results only, but it should also be 
considered as å contribution to the material accessible to the scientific 
public. Upon this prineiple I have given in the following pages å 
description of the eruciform brooches of Norway, recording all the 
varieties even when my explanation of the facts may seem doubtful, 
or when I have not been able to give any satisfactory explanation 
at all. 
As the history of eruciform brooches, in its main features, has 
already been given in several publications, my chief purpose has 
not been to start any new theories, but to give å complete survey 
of the whole material in order to establish å basis for current 
opinions of the subject. For this purpose I have found it desirable 
to give as many illustrations as possible — taken partly from other 
publications and partly from original drawings and photographs 
although the number of figures may thus seem rather out of pro- 
portion to the text. My conclusions will be found new only in 
very few points, and I do not pretend to have made any diseoveries 
of importance. But with regard to some questions where opinions 
are divided, I hope to have afforded the means to å better under- 
standing, for instance as to the origin of the type, and the relations 
18 
