Rock art for the dead and un-dead. Reflections of the significance of hand stones in Late Bronze Age Scandinavia

Only a few if any South Scandinavian Bronze Age rock art images are as enigmatic as the 27 hand stones found at various sites in Denmark, in northern Bohuslän in Sweden and in Østfold in Norway. The reason is first and foremost that the iconography is quite homogeneous. They almost exclusively show a raised hand with the thumb placed at an angle of approximately 90 degrees. Four dashes are placed above the fingers. The palm is often pecked somewhat deeper and may therefore be the image of a right hand. All similar hand images are made on portable slabs. But how shall these be interpreted?