Newly acquired palaeobotanical data, including pollen, charred and uncharred wood, provided an exhaustive overview of the temporal changes in woodlands, which changes are due to the cumulative effect of natural processes and the long-term impact of pre-agrarian societies. We used the unique advantage of the peat bog archaeological site at Szczepanki located on an island in the former Lake Staświn (Masurian Lake District) to get an overview of wood exploitation throughout the Stone Age. Special attention was paid to the period of the most intense settlement, the period of the para-Neolithic Zedmar culture. This culture is interesting due to its economy having not been fully recognized so far, especially with respect to the use of plant resources. The evidence from Szczepanki confirmed the use of 16 arboreal taxa, accessible in local woodlands, as a source of timber by foragers. The majority of both unworked wood and fragments bearing traces of processing has been discovered in layers corresponding to the Zedmar period. An important role in the economy was played by wood with medium or low mechanical properties that was however fissile and amenable to woodworking. In addition, other useful properties such as flexibility, lightness, water resistance, strength and ease of splitting were favoured in the selection. The temporal distribution of wood remains in cultural layers at Szczepanki was convergent with a pollen record documenting the course of postglacial migration and local growth of particular taxa, as well as with the archaeologically documented changes in the intensity and time frame of the settlement.

Cremation burials of Stone Age hunter-gatherers were found at 21 sites across the European Plain (including southern Scandinavia). In total, there are 54 graves and deposits containing bones of at least 89 individuals. Sites with Mesolithic cremations are unevenly spread over the European Plain and there are some regions where this type of burial was more common, such as the Seine Valley and the Low Countries, southern Scandinavia or north-eastern Poland. In all of these regions, the oldest burials are dated to the Early Mesolithic, which indicates a parallel and independent origin of this custom. Moreover, each region or even cemetery has its own features of the cremation rite. In both the Western European Plain and southern Scandinavia, most burials are dated to the Middle Mesolithic and there are only a few examples linked to the Late Mesolithic. North-eastern Poland, including the Dudka cemetery, is probably the only region where cremation was practised on a wider scale in the Late Mesolithic and para-Neolithic. The share of cremations among all burial types differs between regions and cemeteries. It was probably a dominant practice in the Middle Mesolithic in the Netherlands. In other cases, cremation probably involved a large part of the local hunter-gatherer society, for instance at the Dudka cemetery in Masuria or in the Middle Mesolithic of Vedbæk Fiord (Zealand), whereas at the cemeteries in Skateholm it amounted to only a few percent, suggesting that it was practised in the case of the deceased of particular status or in unusual circumstances only.

The cemetery at Dudka was used in the Mesolithic and Para-Neolithic period. It yielded 25 graves with remains of at least 116 individuals, including 52 who were cremated. Cremation was introduced in the Para-Neolithic, c. 4200 cal BC, and was probably a locally developed custom. Most cremations are dated to the classic Zedmar period, when the number of loose human bones also increased significantly, indicating the growing role of multi-step burial rites. Cremation could have been an alternative to temporary burial, i.e. bones were cleaned of soft tissue using fire, instead of waiting for their natural decomposition. Burned remains were selected and divided like bones taken from temporary burial places, then stored for a time before final disposal in the cemetery.