Abstract
There is a general understanding that the ancient city of Kalydon and the region of Aitolia in Greece were subjected to the Nicopolitan synoecism in 29 B.C. However, a substantial amount of Roman material has been found during several excavations in Kalydon, which suggests that there was activity in the city in the Roman period. However, since no in-depth study of late Hellenistic/ early Roman activity in the city has been done before, the question of the nature of this activity remained unanswered. By using residuality theory and in-depth contextual analysis, I have analysed the ceramic evidence and Roman coins from five different contexts in Kalydon in order to shed light on the character of late Hellenistic/early Roman activity there. An additional three single finds were also examined because of their possible Roman dates. An intensive comparison with Corinth, a Greek city that also was supposedly abandoned for a period of time, was done with the purpose of supporting my argument that Kalydon most likely was not subjected to the Nicopolitan synoecism. The analysis showed that there probably was limited activity in the city from around 100 B.C. until the early Roman period, but that the activity increased then. The population is likely to have been permanent and there is a possibility that the size of the population would have been larger than the physical evidence suggests. The analysis of the single finds resulted in the conclusion that all three probably date to the early Roman period and that they provide indications for construction activity, local production of olive oil and burials taking place in Kalydon in the early Roman period, which further strengthens the probability of a permanent population in the city.