I. Typological description of the eruciform brooches. 
1. Origin of the type. 
The term ,The eruciform brooch* as it is generally used by 
the Scandinavian archaeologists especially means that Teutonic form 
the upper part of which consists of å 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 å common 
origin. They are å 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. å | 
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 
eontributed to the main development of the type here in question. 
In the different parts of Western and Northern Europe we find 
in the 4th cent. A. D. å 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 
