pottery of the Taensa was made with typical Mississippian culture pottery shapes and used the Mississippian hallmark of crushed mussel shell as a tempering agent, but was still being engraved with decorative designs typical of the Plaquemine area. Pottery from the Natchez sites of nearby western Mississippi still used the traditional Plaquemine grog tempering and decorative designs. On this basis the Taensa are considered to be the last Mississippian culture group to inhabit the Tensas River valley of Louisiana. Architecture The Taensa were sedentary maize growing agriculturalists as opposed to hunter gatherers and lived in permanent villages with wattle and daub buildings. These structures were up to in length and in height and made from logs plastered in clay with roofs of woven split cane matting. Their village on Lake St Joseph is described as fitting the same dispersed hamlet pattern of the Natchez. It stretched for on the western lake shore with neighborhoods being interspersed with fields and forest. The main precinct had a log palisade, inside of which was the chiefs residence, the temple, and eight other structures. Like other Native Americans in the southeast it also had an open plaza area used for public rituals and functions such as the Green Corn Ceremony and games such as chunkey and the ballgame. This pattern of plazas flanked by mounds with temples, elite residences and mortuary structures at their summits was inherited from their Plaquemine and Coles Creek ancestors, and was a village arrangement widely employed throughout the southeast. The Coles Creek era Balmoral Mounds and early Plaquemine era Routh Mounds (occupied circa 1200 to 1350 CE) sites which features this same layout are also located on the western bank of Lake St Joseph near where the Taensa lived in the 17th century. Chiefs residence The temple and chiefly residence stood on opposite sides of the plaza. The chiefs cabin was a square building measuring on each side with clay plastered walls high and thick. It was capped by a roof in height that was covered in cane mats woven so tightly they were said to be waterproof. The great temple was similar in appearance but had three carved eagle effigies at its summit. Inside beaten copper plaques and painting adorned the walls. There was a fire of burning cane in the center and low couch-like beds lined the walls. The chief sat on one that acted as a