Lye-treated samples appear to have greater separation between seed-coat and kernel than do the water-treated samples, though we have not quantified this effect.

Our quantitative and qualitative observations raise several questions:

1. Why is it so important to remove the seed coats?  Native accounts consistently identify this as the primary reason for using lye treatment, but do not explain why this is considered so important that it is worth greatly increasing the overall processing time required to prepare maize.  Boiling in lye helps remove seed coats from kernels, but also dramatically increases total processing time (both the time for boiling and the pounding time).  If removing seed coats is so important, why was some maize processed dry?  This is particularly puzzling because some food recipes calling for dry-pounded maize are otherwise identical to recipes for lye-treated maize.

2. Does our experimental protocol differ in some important way from actual Native American maize processing?  Our protocol was designed to mimic published accounts of maize processing, but those accounts may omit important details that were "so obvious" they didn't get mentioned in the accounts.