Marinus Anthony van der Sluijs holds a Master's Degree in Comparative and Historical Linguistics from Leiden University, The Netherlands. He was a Consulting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Philadelphia, PA) from 2009 to 2021. He has published in journals (often peer-reviewed) on such diverse subjects as the history of science, the history of religions, comparative mythology, the ancient Near East, archaeology, medieval literature, near-death studies and Forteana.