Hilltop enclosures were built to conform to the natural setting, and at this point the east section of the mound wall ends as steep cliffs replace the mounds and let the landscape define the site. This follows the pattern of hilltop enclosures shaped by high ground and natural features rather than geometrically shaped enclosures. The structure enhanced a special landscape setting, and the builders may also have chosen hilltops for directional orientation, orientation to water, and centrality within their zone. Constructing and maintaining the mounds brought together groups living on the Highland Rim, in its valleys leading into the Central Basin, and perhaps along the Elk River as well. Mound building and ceremony involved social processes that likely mattered as much as the structure itself, building communal identity and encouraging bonds that eased social tensions. Combined with advances in agriculture and pottery development, these cultural dynamics would eventually lead to the creation of tribes. Woodland peoples were already more settled than the earlier, seasonally nomadic Archaic hunters and gatherers, and over time larger, more permanent settlements would develop and become the basis for the later Mississippian tradition.