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As far as it is known, Nebamun is the first attested person in the New Kingdom who
functioned as a ‘royal wb’, and although he did not bear the proper title wb3 nswt or
wdpw nswt, he can nevertheless be regarded as one of those officials since he held the
title of wdpw m stp-s3 ‘nh wa} snb ‘wdpw in the palace, life, prosperity, health’ instead.
The function of this position might correspond to that of wb3 nswt or wdpw nswt in
practice, although no other known person bore this specific title.*
His tomb — TT 24 — is situated at the foot of the south-east side of Dra Abu el-Naga
in Thebes.”° The tomb itself is a rather small one consisting of only one room. Hermann
notes that the explanation for the use of different sized and formed tombs seems to
correlate with the position of the owner in the social and official hierarchy. According
to his theory, a simpler one-roomed tomb may show the lower status of the owner in
these spheres, while a larger, more sophisticated T-shaped tomb, which was the usual
type in this period, may indicate the owner’s higher position in administration and
society. At the same time, Hermann also points out that this sort of differentiation and
use of tomb forms were not strictly consistent, since in several cases the correlation
between the status of the owner and the form and size of the tomb is quite the opposite
of the one outlined above.3* One example is the tomb of Nebamun himself, who based
on his titles had obviously not belonged to the lower administrative and social class. In
spite of the small size of his tomb, its decoration scheme is complete. It contains all the
themes that would have been expected on the walls of a tomb during this period: the
deceased and his wife are sitting with offering lists before them, funerary rituals with
an Abydos pilgrimage and rites before the mummy, agricultural scenes, hunting in the
desert, fishing and fowling, banquet scenes, receiving produce and inspecting vintages
that depicted the official duties, stele with biographical inscriptions and appeals to the
living.*” All of the decorations are painted, except the stele on the south wall of the tomb,
which is also engraved.
9 Al-Ayedi, 2006, 263.
3° For an architectural description of the tomb and for the depiction of the false-door, see Kampp,
1996, 209-210.
* Hermann, 1940, 16, n. 25, for example TT 12, TT 24, TT 51, TT 110, TT 181, TT 318. Intriguingly, Her¬
mann counts TT 110 among the examples of a lower status person having a larger elaborate tomb.
TT u is the tomb of Djehuti (I), another ‘royal wb3’, discussed on the following pages, who was
definitely not a lower status person as he also bore the highest ranking title jrj-p"t h3tj-", to mention
but one among his important titles indicating his higher status in the court hierarchy, see p. 111.
3” Porter — Moss, 1960, 41-42. For a detailed description of the decoration and for the inscriptions, see
Bouriant, 1887, 95-99; for the inscription of the stele, also see Sethe, 1927-1930, 145-153; for scenes
from the tomb, see Wreszinski, 1923, pls. 97b, 125-126.