Ingi Innrisser & Oddr Omrisser

Dual petroglyph artists of northern Sweden and Norway

Allan Krill, Professor of Geology
Trondheim, Norway

Three artists —Steinn Stikkmann, Ingi Innrisser, and Oddr Omrisser— made nearly all the petroglyphs in Norway and Sweden.

This website concerns Innrisser and Omrisser. To read also about Stikkmann, and how Scandinavian petroglyphs have been misinterpreted, go to Helleristninger.com.

Ingi Innrisser had a childlike or primitive artistic style. He drew mostly deer —reindeer, red deer (hjort), or moose. They usually have small pointed heads, straight backs, and square rumps. He liked to decorate the bodies of deer with ribs or various patterns, including geometric designs.
Innrisser's best work, and one of his last, was the large panel at Kåfjord near Alta. Part of that panel is shown below, in the tracing by Karin Tansem (2022). It shows a bear that has wandered into a corral of herded reindeer. Innrisser was documenting Sámi culture, as we know it today. (I disagree with Knut Helskog's interpretation that the corrals in Alta are hunters' traps. I do not think that people would trap 40 reindeer in order to hunt them. The bear may be hunting.)

From analysis of Innrisser's motifs and styles, I am trying to follow his career. I hypothesize that his first work was at Vingen, where there are about two thousand nailpoint engravings. I think he made them all. They include his new-beginner attempts on loose rock slabs that he could hold on his lap while engraving. The page below, from Johannes Bøe (1932), shows some of these loose practice rocks. The scale bars for the tracings are 10-30 cm. Note the curious hook figures.

Innrisser engraved hundreds of hook figures. They comprise about 20% of his images at Vingen. I think he made the hook figures mostly to practice engraving. He also made a few hook figures at Nämforsen. He made many at Alta (Hjemmeluft, Kåfjord, and Langnesholmen) such as in the Kåfjord figure below. At those sites we can see that the hook figures are animal-head sticks, often being held up high by men. A few at Nämforsen are also held by men. Knowing that, we can notice that many of the crude hook figures at Vingen have animal ears (see Bøe's images in the page above.) Maybe Innrisser was depicting an animal-head walking stick that his father or grandfather had used.

Vingen is an isolated place, and there have never been more than a few houses there. I suspect that Innrisser actually lived in the Skatestraumen area, which was a population center in the Iron Age. It is about ten kilometers by rowboat from Vingen. Two-way tidal currents make the boat trip easy at certain times each day. Innrisser probably learned about nailpoint engravings from seeing Stikkmann's work. Then he probably visited Vingen daily for many weeks, making his own petroglyphs there.
Innrisser took a long trip to northern Norway. I think he showed Oddr Omrisser how to engrave rocks at Tennes and Alta (Storsteinen and Amtmannsnes) during that trip. His next major work was probably at Ausevik near Vingen. His human figures at Vingen, Alta, and Ausevik are all wildly abstract. So are many of his deer at those places. He was experimenting with creative ways of drawing. In the picture below, Trond Lødøen (2012)) has put together 27 of the 61 humans at Vingen. No two human images are alike.

The tracing below by Anders Hagen (1970) of a panel at Ausevik shows one abstract human and about 13 deer. Innrisser also drew these images during his early experimental phase.

At most of Innrisser's sites (but not Vingen or Ausevik) he was together with Oddr Omrisser. Omrisser was a naturalist, and encouraged Innrisser to make his deer more anatomically correct —with shoulder humps, muscular legs, and larger heads. At Holtås in Trøndelag, I think Innrisser mocked Omrisser by adding silly-looking shoulder humps to the straight backs of his deer. See the tracing by Kristen Møllenhus (1968) below.

Innrisser and Omrisser took a long trip to eastern Norway (Oslo and Drammen), probably following one river valley south, and another back north. Innrisser added shoulder humps to his deer at some of those sites, such as at Skogerveien. See the tracing below by Egil Mikkelsen (1977).

Recognition of an artist's interests helps us to interpret obscure images. Innrisser liked snowshoes, and drew snowshoes or snowshoe tracks on many panels at Alta. So in the tracing at Skogerveien (above), the strange objects on the left are probably snowshoe tracks.
Snowshoes in Alta do not necessarily depict winter scenes. Snowshoes can also be helpful in Alta in the spring, when the days never get dark, and when Innrisser's longship probably arrived. In the tracing below, I think the man standing in the animal-head boat is holding up a pair of snowshoes. (Innrisser showed the snowshoes held up high, so they would be noticed.) The objects below the boat may be an animal-head stick, and a bundle of reindeer skins to be taken by longship to southern Norway. I have colored two reindeer blue, because they were added by Omrisser, and not really part of Innrisser's panel.

Innrisser's panels at Kåfjord and Bergbukten (Alta) are especially important, because they are some of the earliest documentation of Sámi culture. He showed reindeer in corrals, and Sámi clothing items. The traditional clothing of Sámi men in the Alta area includes a hat with points. The traditional clothing of Sámi women includes a shawl with fringes. (Innrisser showed the boat, rope, and shawls up in the air to be easily seen.)

I currently think that Innrisser worked his sites in about this order (site locations on the top map): Vingen, Amtmannsnes (Alta), Storsteinen (Alta), Tennes, Skavberget, Ausevik, Surnadal, Salthammer, Bogge, Glösa, Holtås, Bardal, Eidefossen, Dokkfløyvatn, Drotten, Møllerstufossen, Stein, Glemmestad, Ekeberg, Skogerveien, Åskollen, Geithus, Nämforsen, Langnesholmen, Gåshopen, Slettnes, Leirbukt, Gamnes, Apana Gård (Alta), Ole Pedersen (Alta), Bergheim (Alta), Bergbukten (Alta), Kåfjord.

Oddr Omrisser usually made outlines of his objects —of animals, of boats, of people, and even of the antlers of reindeer and the penises of men. He made images large and even life size when possible. He was a naturalist, and many of his animals are very lifelike. The species of his deer, birds, fish, and whales can often be identified.
He had his quirks. He liked to draw a line for the mouth, but no eye. He often ignored the feet, leaving the legs unfinished or ending as points. He usually drew animals in profile, but not the ears, which often form a V. He showed only one foreleg and one hind leg on four-legged animals. (Innrisser and Stikkmann usually drew four legs.) He sometimes indicated a 'life-line' from the mouth to the stomach or heart. Innrisser did this also at some of his sites.
Omrisser's images are typically overlapping and incomplete. I think he drew the complete animal, maybe with charcoal, and then engraved it only partially. We can deduce that from seeing incomplete images such as the 6-meter long whale in the tracing below. He had the habit of cluttering rock panels by drawing large and inappropriate images right on top of earlier carvings. He cluttered most of his own panels in that way, and defaced Stikkmann's panels at Bardal, Hammer IX, Revlan, and Stavanger, and Innrisser's panels at Alta, Bogge I, Ekeberg, Kåfjord, Langnesholmen, and Nämforsen.

At Bogge I, Innrisser drew many deer, and then Omrisser put an oversize moose on top of some. He added a large deer-head there as well. Below is part of the tracing by Gutorm Gjessing (1936) of the defaced panel, where I have colored Omrisser's two images blue. I think Innrisser told Omrisser to get away and find another place to work. So Omrisser went down the hill and made two panels of his own (Bogge II, Bogge III). The same thing happened at Holtås I and II.

Below on the left is a tracing by Eva & Per Fett (1941) of a panel at Stavanger (Åmøya). It shows typical boats and shoe prints by Stikkmann. Omrisser defaced the panel by putting a few images (which I have changed to blue) on top of Stikkmann's images. Omrisser was copying Stikkmann's boats, to learn how to draw outlines of that boat type. He then made a 5.5 meter boat nearby. (That petroglyph is shown further down on this page.) On the right is a tracing by Tansem (2022) of a panel at Kåfjord by Innrisser. Omrisser defaced the panel by putting several images on top of Innrisser's images. Note that Omrisser drew the same fish at Stavanger and Kåfjord, and the deer-head at Kåfjord is the same as at Bogge. He made that distinctive deer-head (often without the body of the deer) at many places in Norway and Sweden.

Some of Omrisser's added images almost fit in. At Bergbukten (Alta), Omrisser added reindeer (slightly oversized) to Innrisser's panel of reindeer and a corral. (Note also Innrisser's three bears making tracks as they head toward the corral.) All the images were painted red by Alta Museum, but I have changed Omrisser's images to blue in my photo (August 2025).

Omrisser usually made humans as small stick figures, like many of Innrisser's. But some of his humans are large and outlined, like his animals. Below is a collection of Omrisser's outlined humans. His men in profile, at Lånke, Bardal, Alta, and Hammer, have long torsos and undersized legs. In his sex scenes at Bardal and Alta the female has the size and proportions of a child. These are interesting quirks of Omrisser.

Early in his career, before Innrisser taught him to engrave, Omrisser painted rock panels in northern Sweden (see my message #238). He also painted at a few sites in Norway (see my message #232). He painted with red ocher pigment, probably mixed with fat that penetrates the rock surface, leaving red traces that are still visible after more than a thousand years. (If there are oil stains on your kitchen's granite countertop, they may also last a thousand years :-) He must have worked during the winter or spring in Sweden, when he could stand on ice-covered lakes and paint rock panels at the lake edge. Later, he also stood on frozen lakes to make engravings. I suspect that he was born south of Strömsund Sweden, where there is a cluster of rock paintings, all within skiing distance from each other. They are not far from Nämforsen, where he and Innrisser worked together making nailpoint petroglyphs. Their engravings at Nämforsen are quite similar and difficult to distinguish.
Omrisser's earliest engravings may have been the crude ones at Tennes. We see this most clearly in the porpoises, a motif that he liked to draw. Some of his porpoises are shown below. Note the porpoises' tails typically point down. Also note that he used two short lines to indicate flippers on porpoises at Tjøtta, Salsnes, Hammer, Tennes, and Amtmannsnes (Alta). Such quirks suggest the work of a single artist.

Omrisser used four different petroglyph techniques during his career. He started with red ocher stain, but mostly he used the nailpoint technique. On two panels of soft rocks (at Gärde and Hell) he used the point of a knife. Late in his career, at the peak of his anatomical drawing skill, he discovered that he could quickly and easily make large petroglyphs by scraping away black lichen that covers the surfaces of glacially-polished white granites. Using that technique he made life-sized and lifelike images of animals at seven known sites in Nordland: Leiknes, Fykanvatn, Mjønes, Nes, Sagelva, Valle, and Åmøya.
Omrisser made Scandinavia's largest images. His outlined orca whale at Leiknes (below left) is 7.5 meters long, and his outlined boat at Åmøya on one of Stikkmann's panels (below right) is 5.5 meters long.

Omrisser 'signed' many of his panels with rhombic designs. The ones at Fångsjön (Jämtland), Hell (Trøndelag), and Forselv (Nordland) have a remarkable 3D-look.

Dynamics of two artists working together
Where Innrisser and Omrisser worked together on the same panel, their images can be rather similar and difficult to distinguish. Omrisser liked working together with Innrisser, but Innrisser was sometimes annoyed that Omrisser was defacing his panels. When Innrisser chased Omrisser away, he often went down the hill to work. I think that was so he could look up at Innrisser. If he went up the hill, he would need to stop working and turn around to look down at Innrisser.

At Ekeberg in Oslo, Innrisser and Omrisser each made four deer. Innrisser’s deer are higher on the panel. They have four legs, tiny heads, two parallel ears, and straight backs without shoulder humps. Omrisser’s deer have two legs, two outlined ears that form a V, and shoulder humps.

In messages at Groups.io, I register Omrisser's art occurring below Innrisser's art: Ekeberg, Bogge, Holtås, and Nämforsen, and in Alta at Bergbukten, Ole Pedersen, and Bergheim. Omrisser liked working closely with Innrisser, but I don't think the feeling was mutual.

Petroglyphs cannot be dated directly, and that has been a problem, because people expect archaeologists to tell just how old an artifact is. Norwegian archaeologists adopted the 'shoreline dating method' a century ago. Shoreline dating gives the time that the land area rose above the sea during post-glacial uplift. That is the oldest possible time of human activity on that land. It is a geological age, not an archaeological age. It only works if the petroglyphs were made right at the shoreline. But I think they would not have been made there. My geology students and I cannot work with slippery shoreline rocks.
At many petroglyph sites, images high on a hillside are said to be hundreds of years older than similar images a few meters lower down. At Alta, the age difference is said to be over 5000 years. The figure below, from a publication by Jan Magne Gjerde (2024) shows the four supposed phases of rock art at Alta that were established in a publication by Knut Helskog (1988). I have added in red the years BP (Before Present) that are claimed for those phases. The ages apply only to the ancient shore levels, not the images. I ignore the elevations of Alta images, and can identify most of them as the work of either Innrisser (brown) or Omrisser (blue).

I think that the positions of images on a rock panel have no chronological significance, other than within a single day's work. Petroglyph artists probably tended to move upward on a hillside as they worked, as geologists usually do. Look again at the lichen-scraped images at Leiknes, with the 7.5-meter orca whale. Modern vandalism shows that such images can be made in only a few minutes. I suppose that Omrisser produced them all in a single day, working from the lowest image to the highest. In contrast, Gjerde (2010) suggested that the lower images were drawn at a shoreline several hundred years after the upper images were drawn at a higher shoreline. Those shorelines are about 8,000 years old.

Allan Krill
allankrill@gmail.com

Click on a site name to see some of the petroglyph images.
Almfjellet, Trøndelag (Omrisser) [ocher technique]
Alta, Finnmark (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Alta Amtmannsnes, Finnmark (Innrisser)
Alta Apanes, Finnmark (Omrisser)
Alta Bergbukten, Finnmark (Innrisser shown in red) (Omrisser shown in blue)
Alta Kåfjord, Finnmark (Innrisser shown in black) (Omrisser shown in blue)
Alta Ole Pedersen, Finnmark (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Ausevik, Vestland (Innrisser)
Bardal I, Trøndelag (Omrisser, with Stikkmann's work not shown)
Bardal II, Trøndelag (Stikkmann + Omrisser) [39% cup marks, 21% shoe soles]
Bardal III, Trøndelag (Innrisser)
Bjørset, Møre og Romsdal (Omrisser?)
Bogge (Boggestranda) I, II, III, Møre og Romsdal (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Bogge I, Møre og Romsdal (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Bogge II, Møre og Romsdal (Omrisser)
Bogge III, Møre og Romsdal (Omrisser)
Brennholtet, Nordland (Omrisser)
Bøla, Trøndelag (Omrisser)
Dokkfløyvatnet, Innlandet (Innrisser? + Omrisser?)
Drotten, Innlandet (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Duved (Åresjön), Jämtland (Omrisser)
Eidefossen, Innlandet (Omrisser)
Ekeberg (Sjømannsskolen), Oslo (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Flatruet, Jämtland (Omrisser) [ocher technique]
Forselv (Skjomen), Nordland (Omrisser) [3D rhombic 'signature']
Forså (Efjord), nordland (Omrisser)
Fykanvatn, Nordland (Omrisser) [lichen-scraping technique]
Fångsjön, Jämtland (Omrisser) [ocher technique] [3D rhombic 'signature']
Gamnes, Finnmark (Innrisser)
Geithus, Buskerud (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Glemmestad, Innlandet (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Glösa, Jämtland (Innrisser)
Gärde, Jämtland (Omrisser) [knife-point technique]
Gåshopen, Finnmark (Innrisser)
Hammer I, IV, V, VI, VIII, X, XIII, XIV, XV, Trøndelag (Omrisser)
Hammer IX, Trøndelag (Stikkmann + Omrisser)
Hell, Trøndelag +page, (Omrisser) [knife-point technique] [3D rhombic 'signature']
Herjangen, Nordland (Omrisser)
Hinna (Honhammer, Tingvoll), Møre og Romsdal (Omrisser) [ocher technique]
Holtås I, Trøndelag (Innrisser)
Holtås I, II, Trøndelag (Omrisser)
Hommelvik I, II (Steinaldervegen), Trøndelag (Omrisser)
Honnhammerneset (Tingvoll), Møre og Romsdal (Omrisser) [ocher technique]
Horjem, Trøndelag (Omrisser)
Hästskotjärn, Jämtland (Omrisser) [ocher technique]
Isnestoften (Langnesholmen), Finnmark (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Kvennavika, Trøndelag (Omrisser)
Landverk (Ånnsjön), Jämtland (Omrisser)
Langnesholmen (Isnestoften), Finnmark (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Leiknes, Nordland (Omrisser) [lichen-scraping technique]
Leirbukt, Finnmark (Innrisser)
Lier (Utenga), Buskerud (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Lånke (Tønsåsen), Trøndelag (Omrisser)
Mjønes (Vågan), Nordland (Omrisser) [lichen-scraping technique]
Møllerstufossen, Innlandet (Innrisser)
Nes (Josarsaklubben, Lødingen), Nordland (Omrisser) [lichen-scraping technique]
Norrfors, Norrland +page (Omrisser)
Nytjønna, Trøndelag (Innrisser)
Nämforsen, Västernorrlands län (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Rauhammer, Trøndelag (Omrisser) [ocher technique]
Reitaneset, Møre og Romsdal (Innrisser?)
Rykkje (Kvam), Vestland (Omrisser)
Røsand, Møre og Romsdal (Omrisser)
Sagelva (Tømmerneset), Nordland (Omrisser) [lichen-scraping technique]
Salsnes (Reppen), Trøndelag (Omrisser)
Salthammeren (Vangdal), Vestland (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Salthammeren (Vangdal) upper panel, Vestland (Omrisser)
Sandhalsen, Trøndelag (Omrisser) [ocher technique]
Sjøhagen-Meling (Åmøy), Rogaland (Stikkmann + Omrisser)
Skavberget 1,2, Troms (Omrisser)
Skavberget 3, Troms (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Skogerveien, Buskerud +page (Innrisser)
Slettjord, Nordland (Omrisser)
Slettnes, Finnmark (Innrisser)
Steinsodden (Stein, Steinsholmen), Innlandet (Innrisser) (+Omrisser)
Storsteinen Alta, Finnmark (Innrisser) (+Omrisser)
Strand, Trøndelag (Omrisser)
Stykket, Trøndelag (Omrisser)
Surnadal, Møre og Romsdal (Innrisser)
Søbstad, Møre og Romsdal (Omrisser)
Tennes (Bukkhammaren), Troms (Innrisser
Tennes (Gråberget), Troms (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Tennes (Kirkely), Troms (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Tjøtta (Valen, Rødøya, Røøyen), Nordland (Omrisser)
Valle (Finnhågen, Efjord), Nordland +page +page (Omrisser)
Vangdal (Salthammeren), Vestland (Innrisser + Omrisser)
Verdal, Trøndelag (Omrisser)
Vik on Rolla, Troms (Omrisser)
Vingen, Vestland (Innrisser)
Vistnesdalen (Vistnes, Vevelstad), Nordland +page (Omrisser)
Åbodsjön, Ångermanland (Omrisser) [ocher technique]
Åmøy, Rogaland (Stikkmann + Omrisser)
Åmøya (Klubba), Nordland +page (Omrisser) [lichen-scraping technique]
Åskollen, Buskerud (Innrisser)

Internet resources.
Kulturminnesøk, Norway.
The Megalithic Portal.
Swedish Rock Art Research Archives.
Swedish Rune Map.

Multi-site descriptions. (More references).
Engelstad, Eivind, 1934. Østnorske ristninger og malinger av den arktiske gruppe.
Gjerde, Jan Magne, 2010. Rock art and landscapes. Studies of Stone Age rock art from Northern Fennoscandia.
Gjessing, Gutorm, 1932. Arktiske helleristninger i Nord-Norge.
Gjessing, Gutorm, 1936. Nordenfjelske ristninger og malinger av den arktiske gruppe.
Hagen, Anders, 1965. Rock Carvings in Norway.
Hagen, Anders, 1976. Bergkunst: Jegerfolkets helleristninger og malninger i norsk steinalder.
Hagen, Anders, 1990. Helleristningar i Noreg.
Helberg, Bjørn Hebba, 2016. Bergkunst nord for Polarsirkelen.
Helskog, Knut, 1988. Helleristningene i Alta.
Mandt, Gro & Trond Lødøen, 2005. Bergkunst. Helleristningar i Noreg.
Mandt, Gro & Trond Lødøen, 2010. The Rock Art of Norway.
Mandt Larsen, Gro, 1972. Bergbilder i Hordaland.
Mikkelsen, Egil, 1977. Østnorske veideristninger: Kronologi og øko-kulturelt miljø.
Moe, Steinar & Einar Østmo, 1994. Norske helleristninger.
Simonsen, Povl, 1958. Arktiske helleristninger i Nord-Norge II.
Sognnes, Kalle, 1999. Det levende berget.
Sognnes, Kalle, 1999. Helleristninger i Stjørdal.
Tansem, Karin, 2022. Helleristningene i Alta: Estetikken, geologien og figurene.

The links below explain my evidence and hypotheses (including hypotheses that I have abandoned).
Index of the website https://groups.io/g/VikingRockArt

348. Gutorm Gjessing fooled the ski-world for 90 years (1/2026)

337. Innrisser’s story elements at Ole Pedersen, Bergheim, Bergbukten, and Kåfjord in Alta (12/2025)

335/338. Guide to helleristninger at Apana Gård, Alta (12/2025)

333/336. Guide to helleristninger at Bergheim, Alta (12/2025)

332. Guide to helleristninger at Ole Pedersen, Alta (12/2025)

328/329/330. Can you find Omrisser's reindeer within Innrisser's herd? (11-12/2025)

327. Omrisser and Innrisser at the five main sites of Hjemmeluft, Alta (11/2025)

323/326. Guide to helleristninger at Bergbukten Alta (11/2025)

321/325. Guide to Nämforsen hällristningar (11/2025)

324. Guide to helleristninger at Bogge (11/2025)

322. Guide to helleristninger at Sjømannskolen (Ekeberg) Oslo (11/2025)

316/319. Who made which engravings at Nämforsen? (11/2025)