Cooke, Amanda2014-08-252014-08-2520142014-08-25http://hdl.handle.net/1828/5593Handprints and hand stencils are a ubiquitous element of rock art. For archaeologists, they represent a window onto the lives and communities of practice of prehistoric peoples. They are a means of recognizing the individual in the archaeological record and their contribution to the production of rock art. Children represent an understudied archaeological demographic despite comprising 50% of many prehistoric populations. In this thesis, I investigate the applicability of the 2D:4D ratio for sexing children’s hand stencils in a modern context. Based on a sample of 318 living children between the ages of 5 and 16 years old, I analyzed the degree of variance between the ratio derived from the soft-tissue measurements, and the ratio derived from a hand stencil created by the same child. The results of this research support my prediction that the 2D: 4D ratio cannot be used reliably to sex children’s hand stencils archaeologically.enArchaeologyRock ArtHandprintsNegative Hand StencilsChildrenThesisAvailable to the World Wide Web