150 Haakon Schetelig. | [No. 8 
typology, as some irregular speeimens are explained by the fact 
that brooches representing different stages of deveiopment 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 typological 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 å 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 consequently the still existing brooches of the erueiform 
type were generally no more used even if they were practieally 
well fit for use. They may have been for the most part gradually 
Fig. 193. ae Fig. 194. PG 
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 oreat numbers and commonly used, some older speci- 
mens were naturally oftener preserved than at å time when new 
and modern brooches of the same form -were never seen. lt 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 
eruciform brooches from the latter half of the century only one is 
of so characteristic form and of such dimensions that it may be 
considered as continuating the previous development. 
