Phytolith assemblage analysis for the identification of rice paddy

Abstract The rice arable system is of importance to both society and the environment. The emergence of rice paddies was a crucial step in the transition from pre-domestic cultivation to systematic land use and management. However, many aspects of the formation of rice farming systems remain unclear. An important reason is the lack of reliable methods for identifying early rice paddies. One possible means of remedying this knowledge deficit is through analysis of phytolith assemblages, which are closely related to their parent plant communities. In this study, phytolith assemblages from 27 surface soil samples from wild rice fields, 91 surface soil samples from modern rice paddies, and 50 soil samples from non-rice fields were analysed to establish a discriminant function. This discriminant function enabled classification of 89.3% of the samples into appropriate groups. Further, the results suggested that phytolith assemblages can be used to identify rice fields and differentiate between wild rice fields and domesticated rice fields. The method was demonstrated to be an effective way of utilising the large amounts of unidentifiable phytoliths discovered at archaeological sites to provide a modern analogue that may be a valuable key to unlocking the past.