Wilhelm Vilhelmovich Bitner is a well-known scientist, popularizer of scientific knowledge, and publisher at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. He is the author of a number of works on biology, archeology, and psychiatry. This book includes the most striking fragments of the outstanding work of V. V. Bitner “At the turn of the century...”, based on the results of geological, paleontological, archaeological achievements of the 19th century. paints a picture of the distant past of our planet and the life of people since prehistoric times. The author traces in detail the course of the gradual development of civilization and the path of progress in science, relying on the conclusions of representatives of various directions of scientific thought, who have been asking the question “Who are we and where do we come from?” since antiquity. The publication is richly illustrated with authentic images of rare natural phenomena, remarkable finds and cultural monuments, and also reproductions of drawings and paintings by famous artists of the past.