The field season of 2009 carried out in the Byzantine basilica of the acropolis of the ancient city of Phoinike focused on the excavation of the annexes on the northern and southern sides, aiming the discovery of the additional parts of the plan and the understanding of the earliest layers of the complex. Interventions were undertaken in trench SA 1, which was extended in the entire length of room B (longitudinal annex or the ambulatory in the northern aisles of the church). The investigations of 2008 carried out in this area, revealed under the destruction wall levels (US 67) and the covering layer (US 80), (which at a later phase, after the abandonment had been used as a funerary space), the original floor level. It was found at a level of 0, 51 m below the threshold of the basilica. Under the floor level, which was made of white pebble stones, the excavation of this year uncovered a layer (US 90) of Hellenistic materials. Artificial layers (US 95, 105) associated with the leveling of the area for the construction of the temple-thesaurus, during the Hellenistic period, were also identified. The lower layers (US 124, 125, 138) of the trench SA 5 excavated in room C of the northern aisles consisted of Hellenistic materials of the middle of the 3rd Century BC. Another trench (SA 4) was opened in room M, between the staircase of the thesaurus and the northern wall of room B. The excavation suggested that the areas has been used as a funerary space, perhaps since the displacement of the baptismal font on the northern side of the transept, at the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th Centuries AD, when the baptistery and room B were abandoned. Above the destruction layer (US 78), which relates to the final collapse of the basilica (after the 13th Century), levels of mixed and dense materials were discovered. The material consisted mainly of tiles which belonged to the above mentioned graves. In one of them, grave 67, found next to the thesaurus staircase, two rare types of small iron rings were uncovered.
Parallel to the northern wall of room B, a structure (S 96) preserved at its foundations level was revealed. The building technique of the new structure appears the same with that of the basilica and its annexes: pieces of massive stones, tiles and bricks fragments bonded with thick and solid lime mortar, which suggested that this area might have been an additional part of the basilica.
In room A, which might have been a pastoforion, protheis or diaconicon, a trench SA 2 was opened. It revealed that the upper stratigraphic layers consisted of large masonry blocks collapsed during the military work of the 60’s of the last century. In the lower layers, which relate to the time of the collapse of the roof, two graves were identified, suggesting for the reuse of the area as a burial place. This area became part of the funerary space like the other annexes of the basilical complex.
Under layers of plaster (US 120, 130) and tile fragments (US 132), the original floor level of compacted clay (US 135) of room A was discovered. The remaining carbon traces noticed in the floor layer which relates to the fallen roof, suggest that the collapse might have possibly happened due to a fire. The excavation of this area revealed a column and parts of a Corinthian capital of the 5-6th Centuries, probably belonging to the basilica, along with a marble sculpture of Artemis.