About the Author

Willem McLoud is an independent South African scholar whose main interests are ancient Middle Eastern and Mediterranean studies, Kantian philosophy and philosophy of science. He has a PhD in Nuclear Physics (Nuclear Fusion) from the University of Natal, a MA in Philosophy of Science from the University of Cape Town as well as a MBL from UNISA. His work has been published in peer-review journals and he is the author of various books, one focusing on the origins of the Mesopotamian material in the primeval history in the Book of Genesis. His research of and writing about the ancient Middle Eastern world stretch back over more than three decades.

Willem’s main areas of study regarding the ancient Middle East are the Sumerian, Akkadian and early Egyptian civilizations, with special focus on the Uruk and Akkadian Periods in Mesopotamian history as well as the Old Kingdom Period in Egyptian history. His love for the Sumerian language was cultivated during his participation for a few years in a Sumerian reading group led by the cuneiform specialist, Prof Fanie Vermaak. He also has a keen interest in the civilizations which formed in the eastern Mediterranean region during the early second millennium BC. Another passion of his is the legends and myths associated with the great heroic ages of the ancient Middle East.

As part of Willem’s research and writing projects, he has led many research tours to the Middle East as well as the Black Sea and Mediterranean regions, visiting countries such as Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Bahrain, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria etc. He has developed a new ancient Middle Eastern chronological model in which the Mesopotamian high chronology is correlated with the Egyptian low chronology, published in the Journal for Semitic Studies (2019/2). This model was afterwards dramatically confirmed by the newly published text of the recently discovered Epic of Gulkišar (Journal for Semitics 2020/1). Willem has also developed a Sumerian Hypothesis to explain the many Mesopotamian influences in the primeval history in the Book of Genesis (Journal for Semitics 2020/2).