A forested form of life: Southeast Norway in 2350-500 BCE

For much of prehistory, the landscapes of southeast Norway were deeply shaped by dense forests. Yet archaeological narratives of the period from around 2350 BCE onward – the Late Neolithic and Nordic Bronze Age – have largely emphasized episodes of forest clearance and agrarian expansion, mirroring human-landscape developments elsewhere in Scandinavia. This focus has left more persistent landscapes and their associated “forms of life”, particularly those linked to forested environments, largely unexplored. To understand how people continued to inhabit and work within wooded surroundings, even after establishing farmsteads, this study adopts a different perspective. Using REVEALS to reconstruct Late Neolithic and Bronze Age vegetation from an extensive palynological dataset, we examine the diversity and socio-economic potential of forests in southeast Norway. By integrating these reconstructions with archaeological evidence, we propose the concept of a forested form of life: a sustained livelihood rooted in differentiated forest use and management. This reframing positions the southeast Norwegian forests not as passive backdrops to deforestation, but as actively maintained, co-shaped environments. In doing so, the paper highlights the dynamic role of forests as social and historical ecologies, offering a neglected perspective on human-environment relations in the Scandinavian Bronze Age.