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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, Hermann 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.
