assumed that the Middle Helladic culture and the Cycladic culture interacted with one another heavily. There are four types of graves that are found at sites from the Middle Helladic period; pit graves, tholos graves, cist graves, and shaft graves. A pit grave is self explanatory, as it is simply a pit in the ground, while tholos styled graves are characterized as being more of a chamber like tomb. Cist graves and shaft graves are interesting because they are two styles of burial that originate from the Middle Helladic period itself, and it is believed that migrants who moved to Greece during this period influenced the creation of these new burial styles. Cist graves are deep and rectangular with a tumulus, or mound of earth, placed over top and came about during the beginning of the Middle Helladic period. Shaft graves are larger and deeper than cist graves (measuring on average 6 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 4 meters deep) and came about during the end of the Middle Helladic period. Additionally, infants are buried in special jars, pithoi, that generally measure around tall. Based on the archaeological evidence, at Middle Helladic burial ceremonies bodies are placed in graves on their sides with their knees bent (women are placed on their left sides, and men on their right), then those present at the ceremony drink from cups that they then leave at the tomb. Burial customs also included leaving valued items with the bodies like pottery, silver, or bronze. At the Middle Helladic site Lerna, there are over 200 graves that have been excavated. While roughly a third of these graves are extramural burials (bodies are buried outside of the community), intramural burials (bodies are buried within the community) make up two thirds of the graves found including towns being built around a cist. Communities during the Middle Helladic period, specifically Lerna, had irregular layouts with no specific pattern, and houses were tightly packed together. It is theorized that the arrangement of houses may have been based on living close to extended family or close to members of a similar group or faction. Houses were one story tall, built in a "U" shape, and made of clay. Generally houses would feature a porch, with up to three rooms, an inner chamber that would contain a hearth, and spaces for storage and cooking. A larger, free standing house has been