The article presents a deposition of ornaments from the Late Nordic Bronze Age period V. An archaeological excavation along with non-pollen Palynomorph (NPP) and pollen ana-lysis has resulted in new knowledge about poorly illuminated tradition spring offerings. With starting point find at Hedegyden this aims to improve understanding depositional practices relation springs. ornaments, but focuse...

1. A growing number of studies suggest that female ornaments are linked to maternal quality and influence male mate choice. These findings challenge the traditional male-biased view of sexual selection and the hypothesis that female ornaments are the outcome of a genetic correlation with male ornaments. To further test the hypothesis that female traits have a function, it is now essential to in...

Males may use sexual displays to signal their quality to females ; the handicap principle provides a mechanism that could enforce honesty in such cases. Iwasa et al. 1] model the signalling of inherited male quality, and distinguish between three variants of the handicap principle: pure epistasis, conditional, and revealing. They argue that only the second and third will work. An evolutionary s...

The prehistoric site of Franchthi Cave located in the south-eastern Argolid in Greece yielded an exceptionally rich collection of personal ornaments. A reassessment of this category of material culture by two of us (CP and MV) led to the hypothesis that one type of personal ornaments, i.e. marine shell beads belonging to the species Cyclope neritea, were intentionally heated to change their nat...

Allocation of resources into the development of sexual displays is determined by a trade-off between the competing demands of current reproduction and self-maintenance. When reproduction overlaps with acquisition of sexual ornamentation, such as in birds with a yearly post-breeding moult, such a trade-off can be expressed in elaboration of sexual traits used in subsequent matings. In turn, sele...

Although male ornaments may provide benefits to individuals bearing them, such structures may also entail fitness costs. Selection should favour aspects of the phenotype that act to reduce such costs, yet such compensatory traits are often ignored in studies of sexual selection. If a male ornament increases predation risk via reduced locomotor performance, then there may be selection for change...