Dutch Egyptologist; he was born in Utrecht, 15 June 1922, son of Jacobus Johannaes J. and Theodora Elselina Battenberg; he initially studied history and geography at the University of Utrecht and became a grammar school teacher; his interest in Egyptology led him to continue his studies in a one-to-one capacity with de Buck at the University of Leiden; PhD, 1961; he became Lecturer at the University of Leiden, 1970-79, and then Professor of Egyptology, 1979-83; he was editor of the Annual Egyptological Bibliography, 1970-83; he took early retirement to continue in his research work in London where in 1989 he married the Egyptologist Rosalind Hall who collaborated in many of his publications; he was Hon. Research Fellow in the Dept. of Egyptology, UCL; he was an expert in the hieratic script and a specialist on the economy of the Ramesside period and the workers' community at Deir el-Medina; apart from numerous articles, he published Two Ancient Egyptian Ship's Logs, 1961; Commodity Prices from the Ramessid Period, 1975; with R. Janssen, Egyptian Household Animals, 1989; with R. Janssen, Growing up in Ancient Egypt, 1990; Late Ramesside Letters and Communications, 1991; with R. Janssen, Getting Old in Ancient Egypt, 1996; Village Maria. Ten Studies on the History and Administration of Deir el-Medina, 1997; with others, Woodcutter, Potters and Doorkeepers: Service Personnel of the Deir el-Medina Workmen, 2003; Grain Transport in the Ramesside Period, 2004; Donkeys at Deir el-Medina, 2005; Daily Dress at Deir el-Medina, 2008; Furniture at Deir el-Medina, 2009; he died in London 23 Aug. 2011.