Some studies indicate that lye treatment improves the nutritional quality of maize.  However, informants said they use lye because it helps remove the seed coat from the kernel and makes the maize easier to pound.

Does lye-treatment make it easier to process maize?  If the answer is yes, then lye treatment may be one of several innovations (e.g., wooden mortar and pestle, more efficient ceramic cooking pots) that made maize a more productive and practical food source.

This hypothetical maize-processing revolution may be the technological basis for maize intensification in late prehistoric times.  In order to quantify the effect of lye treatment on the efficiency of maize processing, we conducted an experiment.

Hypothesis:  If lye treatment makes maize easier to process, then lye-treated maize samples should yield more grits (finely-pounded corn particles) than maize samples without lye treatment.