The year 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of my first publication on prehistoric basketry. Over the past five decades, the field of perishable artifact analysis has evolved dramatically. Though this evolution has not resulted in a geometric increase in the number of practitioners of this still arcane specialty, it has witnessed numerous transformations and enhancements of focus. After a half century and literally hundreds of publications, papers, and other perishable platitudes, my fundamental “message” continues to follow Weltfish’s original observation that basketry is valuable as a medium for comparative study from multiple points of view because as noted by Weltfish decades ago “the mechanical factors involved in the technical process objectify themselves in the product and are not lost in the process of making.” This contribution summarizes some of the major developments in the arena of basketry studies and, more broadly, in the field of perishable artifact analysis at large.

2020年是我第一次出版史前编织篮子50周年。在过去的五十年中，易腐物品分析领域发生了巨大的变化。尽管这种发展并没有导致这个仍然神秘的专业的从业者数量几何上的增加，但它见证了许多转变和重点的增强。经过半个世纪的时间和数以百计的出版物，论文和其他易变质的陈词滥调之后，我的基本“信息”继续沿用了Weltfish最初的观察，即篮筐作为多种比较研究的媒介非常有价值，因为正如几十年前Weltfish所指出的那样“技术过程中涉及的机械因素使产品本身成为对象，并且在制造过程中不会丢失。