Most of the southeastern Indian peoples were sedentary. They lived in towns or villages grouped around a large public square and protected by palisades. In the 17th century, the largest agglomerations sometimes had several thousand inhabitants. The towns all had man-made mounds of earth on which temples and palaces were built. The elite, who accounted for about 5% of the population, lived atop those mounds, while the common people - the peasants and artisans - lived in houses with thatch roofs built at ground level.