TEHRAN - These days, the delusional President of the United States of America repeatedly declares in an insulting tone that he will bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age.” In a twenty-minute speech, in evening of April 1, 2026, he once again repeated this nonsense and added that he intends to return Iranians to the Stone Age, “to which they belong”! At first, I thought the news text was something like an April Fool’s joke.

But later, I saw on CNN that he had indeed said exactly that. As a geologist who knows a little about geological periods, I should explain that the Stone Age is the longest period in modern geological-archaeological history, spanning from the beginning of the Quaternary period—about 2.5 million years ago—until roughly 3000 BCE. During this long era, especially in its final phase—approximately the last one hundred thousand years—humans used stone tools. Its final stages are divided as follows:

Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) — until about 10,000 years ago: The era of hunting with simple stone tools such as axes, cave dwelling, and cave paintings. Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) — from about 10,000 to 7,000 years ago: The transitional period after the last Ice Age, marked by a warmer climate, smaller tools, fishing, and the domestication of dogs. Neolithic (New Stone Age) — from about 7,000 to 5,000 years ago: The era of the agricultural revolution, including plant cultivation, animal domestication, pottery, the formation of villages, and polished stone tools. After the Neolithic period came the Metal Age (Copper Age). Humans in the Stone Age were nomadic hunter-gatherers without permanent cities. They lived in caves and wooden or hide huts. Their culture revolved around small kinship-based tribes of 20 to 100 people. Leadership was based on age and hunting skill. Society lacked class divisions, and belief systems were rooted in Shamanism and Animism—the idea that every object has a spirit and that nature is sacred, …—along with oral storytelling traditions. 
But Iranian civilization—of which Trump and Netanyahu are either unaware (!) or perhaps aware but resentful—has been recognized in human history since when? Iranian civilization is one of the oldest and most influential civilizations in the world. Over several millennia, it has played a major role in shaping world history in fields such as culture, science, art, politics, architecture, urban development, governance, and spirituality.

The Elamites (3000–640 BCE) were among the earliest organized governments in the world and on the Iranian plateau. The Medes (700–550 BCE) formed the first Iranian state. The Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE) established the first great multinational empire in world history. During the Islamic era (from 651 CE onward), Iranians, by integrating Persian culture with Islamic thoughts, played a foundational role in Islamic civilization. Most of the great scholars of Islamic jurisprudential schools—both Shia and Sunni—as well as the most prominent hadith scholars in Islamic history, were either Iranian or of Iranian descent. Iranians are not only a major source of global culture and civilization through the Persian language, but they also codified Arabic grammar. The foundations of Arabic syntax were established by “Sibawayeh of Shiraz; Sibawayeh Shirazi”.

The system of provincial governance was pioneered by the Achaemenids through the “Satrapy” (province) structure. In water science and hydraulics, Iranians were among the founders. Interestingly, the academic tradition of earning a degree through submitting a supervised “Thesis” was first innovated by Iranians at the University of “Gundishapur” during the Sassanian era. Persian literature, with poets such as Ferdowsi, Saadi, Hafez, and Rumi, holds a global standing. In science, figures like Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Khwarizmi, Biruni, and Razi were Persian pioneers of modern sciences nearly a thousand years ago. After the advent of Islam, Iranian civilization was not weakened; rather, through the integration of Persian culture and Islamic thoughts, it flourished anew. The emergence of Iranian-origin Islamic dynasties such as the Samanids and later the Safavids and now in Islamic Republic system symbolize the manifestation of Iranian-Islamic civilization in governance across this vast land. By reviewing the behavior of Trump and Netanyahu, one might more readily find signs of the Stone Age and distance from modern human civilization!—while still being astonished at how Trump promises to send us back to the Stone Age! There is a well-known Persian proverb: “A infidel assumes others follow his own creed.”

Mehdi Zare is a Professor at the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology. He is also an Associate Member of the Academy of Sciences in Tehran.