In 1994, after joining the faculty of Classics at the University of Cincinnati, Davis and his wife, Sharon Stocker, traveled to Albania for the first time. In 1996, plans to begin an intensive archaeological survey in the hinterland of the Greek colony of Apollonia, co-directed with Muzafer Korkuti, Director of the Institute of Archaeology in Tirana, were interrupted by the collapse of pyramid banking schemes and the ensuing chaos. Subsequently, fieldwork was conducted from 1998-2003 at Apollonia, in 2002 in the hinterland of Dyrrachium/Epidamnos, and the remains of a hitherto unknown Greek temple were investigated in three campaigns of excavation in 2004-2006.