Hand depictions are among the most widespread motifs in global rock art, appearing from the Pleistocene to the present and often representing some of the earliest symbolic practices. At Cerro Azul and Paredones del Potrero in Amazonian Colombia, red handprints feature diverse decorations - including spirals, braided lines and geometric infill - whose production and significance remain little understood. This study presents the first detailed typological classification of thirteen decorated handprint types from these sites. Quantitative and spatial analyses are integrated with ethnographic and Indigenous perspectives, together with cross-cultural comparisons from regions including Brazil, Borneo and Australia, to explore how decorated hands may have functioned as embodied gestures, markers of identity and elements of cosmological landscapes. By combining fine-grained local documentation with a global comparative framework, the study demonstrates the potential of decorated handprints to illuminate the interplay of body, material and place in the creation of enduring social and symbolic relationships.
