diff --git a/weed/worker/tasks/iceberg/delete_rewrite.go b/weed/worker/tasks/iceberg/delete_rewrite.go
index 983aeec8a..064dab166 100644
--- a/weed/worker/tasks/iceberg/delete_rewrite.go
+++ b/weed/worker/tasks/iceberg/delete_rewrite.go
@@ -32,9 +32,14 @@ type deleteRewriteGroup struct {
 	TotalSize      int64
 }
 
+// positionDeleteRow is the Iceberg position-delete schema: the spec reserves
+// field ids 2147483546 (file_path) and 2147483545 (pos). file_path is
+// dictionary-encoded: PyArrow cannot decode parquet-go's default
+// DELTA_LENGTH_BYTE_ARRAY into the dictionary PyIceberg asks for, and the
+// column repeats one data file's path anyway.
 type positionDeleteRow struct {
-	FilePath string `parquet:"file_path"`
-	Pos      int64  `parquet:"pos"`
+	FilePath string `parquet:"file_path,dict,id(2147483546)"`
+	Pos      int64  `parquet:"pos,id(2147483545)"`
 }
 
 func hasEligibleDeleteRewrite(
diff --git a/weed/worker/tasks/iceberg/delete_rewrite_schema_test.go b/weed/worker/tasks/iceberg/delete_rewrite_schema_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..58863e835
--- /dev/null
+++ b/weed/worker/tasks/iceberg/delete_rewrite_schema_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+package iceberg
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/parquet-go/parquet-go"
+	"github.com/parquet-go/parquet-go/format"
+)
+
+// The position-delete file must carry the spec's field ids and a
+// dictionary-encoded file_path: PyIceberg reads delete files with
+// file_path as a dictionary column, which PyArrow cannot decode from
+// DELTA_LENGTH_BYTE_ARRAY, and by-id readers resolve columns by field id.
+func TestPositionDeleteFileHasFieldIDsAndDictionaryPaths(t *testing.T) {
+	rows := []positionDeleteRow{
+		{FilePath: "s3://tb/ns/tbl/data/a.parquet", Pos: 0},
+		{FilePath: "s3://tb/ns/tbl/data/a.parquet", Pos: 7},
+		{FilePath: "s3://tb/ns/tbl/data/b.parquet", Pos: 3},
+	}
+	data, err := writePositionDeleteFile(rows)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	f, err := parquet.OpenFile(bytes.NewReader(data), int64(len(data)))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	want := map[string]int{"file_path": 2147483546, "pos": 2147483545}
+	for _, field := range f.Schema().Fields() {
+		if id, ok := want[field.Name()]; !ok || field.ID() != id {
+			t.Errorf("field %s id = %d, want %d", field.Name(), field.ID(), id)
+		}
+	}
+	for _, rg := range f.Metadata().RowGroups {
+		for _, col := range rg.Columns {
+			if col.MetaData.PathInSchema[0] != "file_path" {
+				continue
+			}
+			dict := false
+			for _, enc := range col.MetaData.Encoding {
+				if enc == format.DeltaLengthByteArray {
+					t.Errorf("file_path is DELTA_LENGTH_BYTE_ARRAY: %v", col.MetaData.Encoding)
+				}
+				if enc == format.RLEDictionary || enc == format.PlainDictionary {
+					dict = true
+				}
+			}
+			if !dict {
+				t.Errorf("file_path is not dictionary-encoded: %v", col.MetaData.Encoding)
+			}
+		}
+	}
+}