Readers are invited to read a book by the Austrian archaeologist and cultural historian M. Gernes (1852-1917), dedicated to the history of primitive mankind - a discipline that studies that period in world history, about which, due to the lack of written monuments, there is no historical data. The book briefly outlines the place of man in nature, gives distinctive signs of human culture, describes the culture and life of man in various prehistoric eras (ice age, stone age, bronze age, time of iron distribution). The book contains a large number of illustrations.