Phytolith Evidence of Millet Agriculture during about 6000~2100ab.P. in the Guanzhong
In this paper,the authors firstly analyzed phytoliths from modern millets and rice husks to clarify the implications of crop phytolith quantity in archaeological samples by wet oxidation method and dry ashing method. Then they identified millet and rice husk phytoliths from 47 archaeological samples in the Guanzhong Basin using a newly developed method of distinguishing common millets and foxtail millets. The analysis of modern crop husk phytoliths reveals that the same weight of common millet and foxtail millet yield almost the same amount of phytoliths. The authors consider that the quantity of foxtail millet grains concentrated by flotation should be divided by 3 or more to reflect substantially the relatively real production of the two millets in the archaeological samples.