1. This article is based on the research that was carried out by the author in preparation for the exhibition ‘Jheronimus Bosch’, held between 1 September and 11 November 2001 in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam (see Van Gangelen & Ostkamp 2001). Some of the results of this research have been presented at the congress ‘Spätmittelalterliche Insignien in Ihrem kulturhistorischen Kontext’ organized by the University of Amsterdam and the Royal Dutch Academy of Science (Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, KNAW), on 26 and 27 September 2002 (see Winkelman & Wolf (eds) 2004; Ostkamp 2004). The results of this research were also discussed at the 12th congress on Theoretical Archaeology (Archeologie & Theorie Symposium) held at the Vrije Universteit in Amsterdam on 10 January 2003 (Materiële cultuur en de mentaliteit van alledag). The author would like to thank Nina Linde Jaspers, Toon Vugts and Ceri Boston for helping translate the text into English.