Unlike crete and the cyclades during the Neopalatial period, where palaces, grand villas, and towns offer a picture of intense and innovative activity, Helladic architecture remains poorly known – with the exception of burial monuments. Only a handful of settlements have been investigated, and these only partially (Darcque 2005, 395). On the Aspis hill at Argos, a position that controls the valley, buildings from the Middle Helladic (MH)/Late Helladic (LH) transition result in a rudimentary urban plan; a row of tripartite houses run along part of the hill (N. Papadimitriou et al., in Schallin and Tournavitou 2015, 163–84). Kolonna (Aegina) is a special case; much like Cycladic towns, the fortified town is extended at the very end of the MH period (W. Wohlmayr, in Felten 2007, 45–55), but it is not until the second half of the fifteenth century bc that the first substantial buildings appear.