High density lipoprotein (HDL) participates in reverse cholesterol transport and in the delivery of cholesterol to steroid-producing tissues. Scavenger receptor class B type I (SR-BI) was recently shown to bind HDL and mediate internalization of its cholesterol content. We have cloned the rat homolog of this receptor, determined its chromosomal location, and examined its expression in rat tissues and in a model of follicular development, ovulation, and luteinization. The predicted protein contained two transmembrane domains, a leucine zipper motif, and a peroxisomal targeting sequence. The rat and human SR-BI genes were mapped to a region previously linked between rat and human chromosomes 12. SR-BI gene expression was detected in several rat tissues, with high levels in ovarian tissue, liver, and adrenal cortex, as determined by ribonuclease protection assay and in situ hybridization. A significant increase in SR-BI gene expression was detected in the late phase of corpus luteum formation, and transcripts were abundant in corpus luteum and in thecal cells at all stages of follicular development. In conclusion, the rat SR-BI complementary DNA predicted a protein with several conserved motifs, including a putative leucine zipper and a peroxisomal targeting sequence. The chromosomal locations of the rat and human SR-BI homologs suggest that this gene is a new member of a previously reported, conserved synteny group. SR-BI gene expression was high in steroid-producing tissues and in the liver, consistent with a role of this receptor in the uptake of HDL cholesterol.

This study, based on evidence from archaeological surveys and excavations in southern Greece, demonstrates two major shifts in the subsistence economy during the Neolithic. I n the EN and MN periods the presence of large villages in locations near reliable water-sources and permanently moist or seasonally flooded soils of high and sustained productivity illustrates a village farming economy concentrating on arable agriculture. The first economic shift occurred in the late MN-LN with occupation of highland caves and islands, indicating increased sheep/goat pastoralism, fishing, and perhaps hunting, with a reduced number of farming villages present in the plains. The second shift took place in the FN-EBA, when a dispersal of agricultural settlements into dry upland regions indicates expanding plough agriculture and pastoralism, important factors contributing to the development of the flourishing EBA economy. The expansion of settlement was most marked in southeastern Greece, and it is suggested here that the extensive grazing areas provided by the open vegetation and mountainous terrain of this dry region, and its relative scarcity of wellwatered fertile lowlands, may have stimulated the LN-FN expansion of pastoralism.

Final Neolithic to Early Bronze Age chronology in Greece remains obscure due to a lack of stratified deposits and radiocarbon dates. In this paper the Greek evidence is considered in the light of typological parallels, stratigraphic sequences, and the larger series of radiocarbon dates available from the south-east European cultures, and a tentative chronology for Greece and south-east Europe is presented. The evidence does not support the earlier notion of an overlap between the Thessalian Rachmani period and the Early Helladic period of southern Greece, but rather suggests that Rachmani is essentially contemporary with the southern Greek Final Neolithic. The Final Neolithic-Early Bronze Age transition in southern Greece shows affinities to Petromagoula in Thessaly and the Bolerdz culture of Europe. Several radiocarbon dates place the Bolerdz period in the early 5th millennium BP, suggesting that dates from FN-EBA transitional contexts in Greece may, in the future, help to fill the existing early 5th millennium gap in the Greek radiocarbon date series.

The promontory site of Eilean Olabhat, North Uist was excavated between 1986 and 1990 as part ofthe Loch Olabhat Research Project. It was shown to be a complex enclosed settlement and industrialsite with several distinct episodes of occupation. The earliest remains comprise a small Iron Agebuilding dating to the middle centuries of the first millennium BC, which was modified on severaloccasions prior to its abandonment. Much later, the Early Historic remains comprise a smallcellular building, latterly used as a small workshop within which fine bronze and silverwork wasproduced in the fifth to seventh centuries AD. Evidence of this activity is represented by quantitiesof mould and crucible fragments as well as tuyère and other industrial waste products. The sitesubsequently fell into decay for a second time prior to its medieval reoccupation probably in the14th to 16th centuries AD. Eilean Olabhat has produced a well-stratified, though discontinuous, structural and artefactualsequence from the mid-first millennium BC to the later second millennium AD, and has importantimplications for ceramic development in the Western Isles over that period, as well as providingsignificant evidence for the nature and social context of Early Historic metalworking.