88 Haakon Schetelig. 
rated very rapidly which is quite natural as the form was first 
introduced when the type was already declining towards the end 
of its history in Scandinavia; but the final decline went on even 
faster with respect to a hybrid variety, as the one before us, than 
was the case with the pure forms. An example, showing this 
process, is given in the brooch fig. 110" where the general form 
is quite well preserved, while the head-plate with the knobs has 
lost all of distinet form and moulding. 'The degeneration is also 
easily traceable in the not good proportions observed in most of 
these brooches, though the corruption of the proportions may in 
some degree be attributed to the introduction of foreign elements; 
as that the bow, when provided with å square top-plate, is made 
broad and flat to suit this novelty. But on the whole the very 
rapid decline of these brooches is best explained by the missing of 
a fixed and conventional form, the appearance of which was pre- 
vented by the circumstance that they were not made in any con- 
siderable number. — Most of these brooches are of small dimensions, 
and the one fig. 106 is one of the largest specimens found; an 
exception is seen only in the enormous brooch fig. 114 below, which 
Is also in other respects not a little different from the normal form 
of this series. 
As already mentioned this form is confined to the Scandinavian 
Peninsula; it is known neither from England nor from Denmark, 
a fact which, together with the scarce appearance of it, indicates 
that it was never much in vogue. - Certainly it was a late form of 
hybrid origin and consequently a form without the organic life 
capable of producing a long series of descendants. Ås its only 
contribution to the main development of the type may be counted 
the fact that in some cruciform brooches — in other respects not 
of the sort treated here — the bow has got å top-plate which is 
probably borrowed from here.?) 
1) See foot-note 2 pag. 87. 
2) See fig. 153 below. Another example is C. 17475. Ab. 1893, p. 107. 
Two Swedish brooches (Stockholm Museum 2549 and 9589: 38) show the same 
peculiarity. 
