PSU Magazine Spring 1992

Passionate about buried civilizations, Jon Mandaville became a media target following the discovery of the fabled city of Ubar. By John R. Kirkland Bits of ancient pottery would some· times litter the ground in areas of the desert where Mandaville grew up. Mandaville's class on Middle Eastern history is popular at PSU. Digging for ancient truth fence built around the Standard Oil company town in Saudi Arabia where young Jon Man– daville spent his adoles– cence, served the dual purpose of keep– ing desert wildlife out and the residents in. But for Mandaville the desert was a fascinating place, and at every oppor– tunity, he would slip out of the com– pound and go exploring. He collected arrowheads that went back 6,000 yea rs. He routinely found bits of pottery, med ieval coins, and mul– ticolored glass bracelets from the 16th and 17th centuries. In those days, the junior high -age Mandaville was simply looking for "stuff." As the years went on, growing up in the Middle East, the son of an American school teacher and blue-col– lar oil worker, Mandaville's search be– came one of-as he puts it- truth. Buried truth: how people lived. ' What people were doing 500 years ago, a thousand, three thousand yea rs in the past. The languages they spoke, the tools they used. A professor of history at Portland State University for more th an 25 years, Mandav ille has become a well– known authority on the Middle East. He's a generalist who can speak intel– ligently about a wide range of Middle Eastern subjects outside his specialty of 16th Century Ottoman studies. PSU 9