It is difficult ta say exactly how old mankind is. We do know, however, that compared to the age of the earth itself estimated at some four thousand million years or to the first appearance of life more than two thousand million years ago, man is a comparative newcomer. During the last thirty years a number of important anthropological discoveries have been made which illustrate the moral and spiritual beliefs that man held before recorded history. This volume discusses these beliefs and the practices that resulted from them. The first part, by Frederic-Marie Bounioux, OFM deals with the birth and significance of religious awareness in early man, his cults and sacrifices, and the developments in the Beolitic period, when man first began to formalize his religious rites.