Susan Toby Evans, Ph.D.

Professional Bio

ORIENTATION OF WORK AND AREAS OF INTEREST:

Material culture remains – objects, sites, settlement and land use patterns -- are best understood from a holistic and culture-ecological perspective, considering all significant aspects of cultural adaptation, from hydrology and agriculture to ritual practices, and social groups from tenant farmers in their huts to lords in their palaces.

• ancient Mexico and Central America (see Ancient Mexico… [2013] Review
  1^st edition won 2005 Society for American Archaeology Book Award,   the only time the award has been given to a full treatment of the pre-modern evolution of one of the world’s six great “cradles of civilization” (that is, regions where cities first arose)
• Aztec period (ca. A.D. 1150 to 1521) culture and customs;
• the Teotihuacan Valley: Classic period Teotihuacan, and Aztec period settlement;
• Cihuatecpan (Woman-Palace) an Aztec village in the Teotihuacan Valley, its domestic architecture (including the only complete Aztec palace ever excavated in the Basin of Mexico), substantial artifact repertoire, and maguey farming practices.
• palace architecture and dynastic histories, including landscape design, monumental gardens, and elite goods; the parallel worlds of the Cúlhua Mexíca and their European counterparts such as the Tudors

Publications:

Books, book-length and multi-chapter monographs, authored and edited:

Susan Toby Evans (editor)
2016  Processions in the Ancient Americas.  Occasional Papers in Anthropology No. 33. Department of Anthropology, Penn State University. https://journals.psu.edu/opa/article/view/60114/60001

Susan Toby Evans (coordinadora)
2015  Implorar con los Pies: Procesiones en Mesoamérica [To Pray With the Feet: Processions in Mesoamerica], a special section of Arqueología Mexicana, Volume 22, No. 131, pp. 34-79 and No. 132.  With contributions by Ann Cyphers, Ernesto González Licón, Ben A. Nelson, Elizabeth Jiménez García and Robert Cobean, Rafael Cobos and Lilia Fernández Souza, Johanna Broda, and Traci Ardren.

Susan Toby Evans
2013  Ancient Mexico and Central America. Third (revised) edition.  Thames & Hudson, London and New York. 624 pages, lavishly illustrated, mostly in color

Susan Toby Evans (editor)
2010 Ancient Mexican Art at Dumbarton Oaks: Objects in the Bliss Collection from Central Highlands, Southwestern Highlands, Gulf Lowlands.   Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C., and Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Authored over 40 overview articles and object descriptions; other contributors: Javier Urcid, S.J.K. Wilkerson, Nicholas Saunders, and Jeffrey Quilter.
General editors:  Joanne Pillsbury and Jeffrey Quilter.

Susan Toby Evans and David L. Webster (editors)
2010  The Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia.  First paperback edition, 80% page size of 2001 edition.  Routledge, Abingdon UK and New York.

Susan Toby Evans
2008   Ancient Mexico and Central America. Second (revised) edition.  Thames & Hudson, London and New York.

Susan Toby Evans and Joanne Pillsbury (editors)
2004   Palaces of the Ancient New World.  Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C., and Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

Susan Toby Evans
2004 Ancient Mexico and Central America. First edition Thames & Hudson, London and New York.

Susan Toby Evans and David L. Webster (editors)
2001 The Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia. First edition, hardbound. Garland Publishing Co., New York.

Susan Toby Evans and William T. Sanders (editors)
2000The Aztec period occupation of the Valley. The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report, V. 5, Part 1: Natural Environment, 20th Century Occupation, Survey Methodology, and Site Descriptions. Occasional Papers in Anthropology No. 25, Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa.

William T. Sanders and Susan Toby Evans (editors)
2000 The Aztec period occupation of the Valley. The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report, V. 5, Part 2: Excavations at T.A. 40 and Related Projects. Occasional Papers in Anthropology No. 26, Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa.

William T. Sanders and Susan Toby Evans (editors)
2001 The Aztec period occupation of the Valley. The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report, V. 5, Part 3: Syntheses and General Bibliography.  Occasional Papers in Anthropology No. 27, Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa.

David L. Webster, Susan Toby Evans and William T. Sanders
1993 Out of the Past: An Introduction to Archaeology. Mayfield Publishing Company, Mountain View CA.

Dutch translation of Webster, Evans, and Sanders:
1993 Levend Verleden: Een inleiding in de archeologie.  Uitgeverij De Haan, Houten: . 

associated ancillary materials:

Susan Toby Evans, Nancy Gonlin and David L. Webster
1993  Faculty Guide for Out of the Past.  Mayfield Publishing Company, Mountain View CA.

Nancy Gonlin, Susan Toby Evans and David L. Webster
1993  Study Guide for Out of the Past.  Mayfield Publishing Company, Mountain View CA.

William T. Sanders, David L. Webster, J. Mallory, and Susan Toby Evans (directors)
1993 Out of the Past: An Introduction to Archaeology (8-part television series, see below)

Susan Toby Evans (editor)

1988   Excavations at Cihuatecpan, An Aztec Village in the Teotihuacan Valley. Vanderbilt University Publications in Anthropology No. 36.

Articles and Reports:

Published:

• Kirby Elizabeth Farah and Susan Toby Evans. 2022 The Aztec New Fire Ceremony and the Illumination of the Night.  In After Dark: The Nocturnal Urban Landscape of Ancient Cities, edited by Nancy Gonlin and Meghan E. Strong, pp. 238-258. University Press of Colorado, Louisville CO.
• Susan Toby Evans. 2020 Palacios aztecas y sus sedes de poder (Aztec palaces and their seats of power). In Sedes de Poder, edited by Linda Manzanilla, pp. 377-398. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Coyoacán.
• 2020 The Aztec Palace.  In Aztecs Edited by D. Kurella, M. Berger and I. de Castro, pp. 125-130. Katja Scharff, Linden-Museum Stuttgart.
• 2017.  Aztec Gambling and Magical Thinking.  In Prehistoric Games, edited by Barbara Voorhies, pp. 259-272.  University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
• Susan Toby Evans and Deborah L. Nichols. 2016. Water Temples and Civil Engineering at Teotihuacan, Mexico. In Human Adaptation in Ancient Mesoamerica: Empirical Approaches to Mesoamerican Archaeology, edited by Nancy Gonlin and Kirk D. French, pp. 25-51. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
• Susan Toby Evans (coordinadora). 2015. Implorar con los Pies: Procesiones en Mesoamérica [To Pray With the Feet: Processions in Mesoamerica], a special section of Arqueología Mexicana, Volume 22, No. 131, pp. 34-79. With contributions by Ann Cyphers, Ernesto González Licón, Ben A. Nelson, Elizabeth Jiménez García and Robert Cobean, Rafael Cobos and Lilia Fernández Souza, Johanna Broda, and Traci Ardren (in No. 132).
• ---- 2015. Las procesiones en Mesoamérica. Arqueología Mexicana Vol. 12, No. 131, pp. 34-39.
• ---- 2015. Procesiones en Teotihuacan: Agua y tierra. Arqueología Mexicana Vol. 12, No. 131, pp. 48-53.
• ---- 2014. Teotihuacan, Where Time and Water Flow. In Cities That Shaped the Ancient World, edited by John Julius Norwich, pp. 210-215. Thames & Hudson, London and New York.
• ---- 2013. How Many People Lived in Tenochtitlan? In Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History, page 549.
• ---- 2013. Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History. Third edition.  Thames and Hudson, London and New York. Winner, Society for American Archaeology Book Award. Review of first edition.
• David L. Webster and Susan Toby Evans. 2013. "Mesoamerican Civilization". In The Human Past: World Prehistory & the Development of Human Societies (third edition), edited by Chris Scarre, pp. 594-639. Thames and Hudson, New York and London.
• Susan Toby Evans. September 27, 2013. Tlazolteotl and Her Sisters: Mistaken and Shifting Hierophanic Identities. Dumbarton Oaks conference on the Birthing Figure (PC.B.071, formerly known as "Tlazolteotl"), organized by Miriam Doutriaux and Gudrun Buehl.
• Susan Toby Evans. 2012. Time and Space Boundaries: Chronologies and Regions in Mesoamerica. In The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology, edited by Deborah L. Nichols and Christopher A. Pool, pp. 114-126. Oxford University Press, New York.
• ---- 2010. Ancient Mexican Art at Dumbarton Oaks:  Central Highlands, Southwestern Highlands, Gulf Lowlands. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington D.C., and Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
• Susan Toby Evans and David L. Webster (editors). 2010. Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia.2nd edition. Routledge Publishing, New York.
• Susan Toby Evans. 2010. "Garden of the Aztec Philosopher King."  In Gardening: Philosophy for Everyone, edited by Dan O’Brien, pp. 207 – 219. Blackwell-Wiley, London.
• ---- 2010. "Aztec Eagle Knight."  In What Makes a Masterpiece: Artists, Writers, and Curators on the World’s Greatest Works of Art, edited by Christoper Dell, pp. 134-135.  Thames & Hudson, London and New York.
• ---- 2009.  review of The Allure of Nezahualcoyotl: Pre-Hispanic History, Religion, and Nahua Poetics (Jongsoo Lee). Ethnohistory 56: 340-342.

• Deborah L. Nichols and Susan Toby Evans. 2009. Aztec Studies. Ancient Mesoamerica, 20: 265-270.
  http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=7460384&jid=ATM&volumeId=20&issueId=02&aid=7460376

• David L. Webster and Susan Toby Evans. 2009. "Mesoamerican Civilization". In The Human Past: World Prehistory & the Development of Human Societies (second edition), edited by Chris Scarre, pp. 594-639. Thames and Hudson, New York and London.
• Susan Toby Evans. 2009. "Tenochtitlan" and "Teotihuacan". In The Great Cities in History,edited by John Julius Norwich, pp. 150-153; 68-73.Thames and Hudson,London and New York.
• Susan Toby Evans. 2008. Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History. Second edition.  Thames and Hudson, London and New York.
• --- 2008. Concubines and cloth: Women and weaving in Aztec palaces and in Colonial Mexico. In Servants of the Dynasty: Palace Women in World History, edited by Anne Walthall, pp. 215-231.  University of California Press, Berkeley.
• David L. Webster and Susan Toby Evans. 2008. In Memoriam: "Even Jades Are Shattered . ." William Timothy Sanders, 1926-2008. In Ancient Mesoamerica, 19, pp. 157-163. NY:Cambridge University Press.

• Susan Toby Evans 2007.  Precious Beauty: The Aesthetic and Economic Value of Aztec Gardens.  In Botanical Progress, Horticultural Innovation and Cultural Change, edited by Michel Conan and W. John Kress, pp. 81-101.  Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC.

• 2007. Las raíces toltecas de la política azteca: los palacios (The Toltec Roots of Aztec Politics:  the Palaces).  Arqueología Mexicana Vol. 15, No. 85: 55-57.

• 2006.  Antecedents of the Aztec Palace: Palaces and political power in Classic and Postclassic Mexico.  In Palaces and Power in the Americas, edited by Jessica Joyce Christie and Patricia Joan Sarro, pp. 285-310.  University of Texas Press, Austin.

• William T. Sanders and Susan Toby Evans. 2006.  Rulership and Palaces at Teotihuacan.  In Palaces and Power in the Americas, edited by Jessica Joyce Christie and Patricia Joan Sarro, pp. 256-284.  University of Texas Press, Austin.

• Susan Toby Evans. 2005. Green evolution: Landscape design and culture change in ancient Mesoamerica.  Anales de Antropología [Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México],  39: 99-110.

• 2005.  The Aztec palace under Spanish rule:  Disk motifs in the Mapa de México de 1550 (Uppsala Map or Mapa de Santa Cruz).  InThe Postclassic to Spanish-Era Transition in Mesoamerica, edited by Susan Kepecs and Rani T. Alexander, pp. 13-34.  University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

• 2005.  Men, women, and maguey: The household division of labor among Aztec farmers. In Settlement, Subsistence, and Social Complexity: Essays Honoring the Legacy of Jeffrey R. Parsons, edited by Richard E. Blanton, pp. 198-228.  Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.

• William T. Sanders and Susan Toby Evans. 2005. Prestige, power and wealth at Teotihuacan: A perspective from the residential architecture.  In Arquitectura y Urbanismo: Pasado y Presente de los Espacios en Teotihuacan:  Memoria de la Tercera Mesa Redonda de Teotihuacan, edited by María Elena Ruiz Gallut and Jesús Torres

• David L. Webster and Susan Toby Evans. 2005. Mesoamerican Civilization. In The Human Past: World Prehistory & the Development of Human Societies, edited by Chris Scarre, pp. 594-639. Thames and Hudson, New York and London.

• Susan Toby Evans. 2004. Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History. Thames and Hudson, London and New York.

• Susan Toby Evans and Joanne Pillsbury (editors). 2004. Palaces of the Ancient New World.  Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.

• Susan Toby Evans. 2004. Aztec Palaces.  In Palaces of the Ancient New World, edited by Susan Toby Evans and Joanne Pillsbury, pp. 7-58.  Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.

• --- 2001.  Aztec Noble Courts. In Royal Courts of the Ancient Maya, edited by Takeshi Inomata and Stephen Houston, Vol. 1, pp. 237-273.  Westview Press, Boulder.

• --- 2001.  Aztec-period political organization in the Teotihuacan Valley: Otumba as a city-state. Ancient Mesoamerica 12: 89-100.

• Susan Toby Evans and David L. Webster (editors). 2001. Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia.Garland Publishing, New York.

• Susan Toby Evans. 2001. Alta Verapaz region; Asunción Mita; Chiconautla; Cihuatecpan; Cuicuilco; Gardens and landscape architecture; Jaina; El Manatí; Tenochtitlan: palaces and pleasure parks.  In The Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia, various pp.

• Susan Toby Evans and John M.D. Pohl. 2001.  Coixtlahuaca.  In The Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia, pp. 161-162.

• Nancy Gonlin and Susan Toby Evans. 2001. Family and household.  In The Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia, pp. 251-255.

• Stephen Houston and Susan Toby Evans.  2001. Sweat baths.  In The Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia, pp. 688-690.

• Octavio Rocha Herrera and Susan Toby Evans. 2001. Huaxtépec.  In The Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia, pp. 349-350.

• William T. Sanders and Susan Toby Evans (editors). 2001. The Aztec period occupation of the Valley. The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report, V. 5, Part 3: Syntheses and General Bibliography.  Occasional Papers in Anthropology No. 27, Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa.
• William T. Sanders and Susan Toby Evans. 2001.  The Teotihuacan Valley and the Temascalapa region during the Aztec Period.  InThe Aztec period occupation of the Valley. The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report 5: 3: 931-1078.
• William T. Sanders, Susan Toby Evans and Thomas H. Charlton. 2001.  Colonial period cultural geography of the Teotihuacan Valley and the Temascalapa region.  In The Aztec period occupation of the Valley. The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report 5: 3: 891-930.
• Susan Toby Evans. 2001.  Palaces. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures: The Civilizations of Mexico and Central America, edited by Davíd Carrasco, pp.431-433.  Oxford University Press, New York.
• --- 2001. Chapultepec Park. In Chicago Botanic Garden Encyclopedia of Gardens, History and Design, edited by Candice A. Shoemaker, Vol. 1, pp. 261-263.  Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago and London.
• --- 2001. Huaxtepec. In Chicago Botanic Garden Encyclopedia of Gardens, History and Design, edited by Candice A. Shoemaker, Vol. 2, pp. 609-611.  Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago and London.
• Susan Toby Evans. 2000. Aztec royal pleasure parks: conspicuous consumption and elite status rivalry.  Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes 20: 206-228.
• Susan Toby Evans and William T. Sanders (editors). 2000. The Aztec period occupation of the Valley. The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report, V. 5, Part 1: Natural Environment, 20th Century Occupation, Survey Methodology, and Site Descriptions.  Occasional Papers in Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa.
• Susan Toby Evans and William T. Sanders. 2000.  Introduction.  In The Aztec period occupation of the Valley. The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report 5: 1: 1-4.
• Susan Toby Evans, William T. Sanders, and Jeffrey R. Parsons. 2000.  The Teotihuacan Valley Project: Aztec period site descriptions.  In The Aztec period occupation of the Valley. The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report 5: 1:  85-499.
• William T. Sanders and Susan Toby Evans (editors). 2000. The Aztec period occupation of the Valley. The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report, V. 5, Part 2: Excavations at T.A. 40 and Related Projects.  Occasional Papers in Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa.
• Susan Toby Evans. 2000.  The Cerro Gordo South Slope: An Aztec Period Rural Settlement in the Teotihuacan Valley.  In The Aztec period occupation of the Valley. The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report 5: 2:  687-709.
• --- 2000.  Research at Cihuatecpan (T.A. 81) in 1984: A Summary.  In The Aztec period occupation of the Valley. The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report 5: 2: 789-839.
• --- 1999.   The Great Temple of the Aztecs. In The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World: The Great Monuments and How they were Built , edited by Chris Scarre, pp. 147-151.  Thames and Hudson, London.
• --- 1999.   The Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. In The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World: The Great Monuments and How they were Built , edited by Chris Scarre, pp. 116-119.  Thames and Hudson, London.
• --- 1998. Sexual Politics in the Aztec Palace: Public, Private, and Profane.  RES 33: 165-183.
• --- 1998. Toltec Invaders and Spanish Conquistadors: Culture Contact in the Postclassic Teotihuacán Valley, Mexico.  In Studies in Culture Contact, edited by James G. Cusick, pp. 335-357.  Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional paper No. 25. Southern Illinois University,  Carbondale.
• Susan Toby Evans and AnnCorinne Freter.  1996. Hydration Analysis of Obsidian from Cihuatecpan, an Aztec Period Village in Mexico.  Ancient Mesoamerica 7: 267-280.
• Susan Toby Evans 1996.  Cihuatecpan, An Aztec Period Village in the Teotihuacan Valley.  In Arqueología Mesoamericana: Homenaje a William Sanders, coordinated by Alba Guadalupe Mastache, Jeffrey R. Parsons, Robert S. Santley, and Mari Carmen Sera, pp. 399-415.  Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
• David L. Webster, Susan Toby Evans and William T. Sanders. 1993. Out of the Past: An Introduction to Archaeology. Mayfield Publishing Co., Mountain View.
• Susan Toby Evans. 1993. Aztec Household Organization and Village Administration.  In Prehispanic Domestic Units in Western Mesoamerica, edited by R. Santley and K. Hirth, pp. 173-189. CRC Press, Boca Raton.
• --- 1992.  The Productivity of Maguey Terrace Agriculture in Central Mexico During the Aztec Period.  In Gardens of Prehistory, edited by T.W. Killion, pp. 92-115. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
• Susan Toby Evans and Janet Catherine Berlo. 1992.  Teotihuacan: an introduction.  In Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan, edited by Janet Catherine Berlo, pp. 1-26.  Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C.
• Susan Toby Evans.  1991.  Architecture and Authority in an Aztec Village: Form and Function of the Tecpan.  In Land and Politics in the Valley of Mexico, edited by H. Harvey, pp. 63-92. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
• --- 1990.  The productivity of maguey terrace agriculture in Central Mexico during the Aztec period.  Latin American Antiquity V.1:117-132.
• --- 1989.  House and Household in the Aztec World: The Village of Cihuatecpan.  In Households and Communities, edited by Scott MacEachern, David J.W. Archer, and Richard D. Garvin, pp. 430-440. The Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary, Calgary.
• --- (editor). 1988.  Excavations at Cihuatecpan, An Aztec Village in the Teotihuacan Valley.  Vanderbilt University Publications in Anthropology No. 36., Nashville.
• --- 1988.  Cihuatecpan: The Village in Its Ecological and Historical Context.  In  Excavations at Cihuatecpan, edited by S.T. Evans, pp. 1-49.  Vanderbilt University Publications in Anthropology No. 36., Nashville.
• Susan T. Evans and Elliot M. Abrams.  1988.  Archaeology at the Aztec Period Village of Cihuatecpan, Mexico: Methods and Results of the 1984 Field Season.  In Excavations at Cihuatecpan, edited by S.T. Evans, pp. 50-234.  Vanderbilt University Publications in Anthropology No. 36, Nashville.
• Susan Toby Evans.   1986.  Analysis of the Surface Sample Ceramics.  In The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report, Vol. 4:  The Toltec Period Occupation of the Valley, edited by William T. Sanders.  Part 1, Excavations and Ceramics:283-366. Occasional Papers in Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa.
• --- 1985.  The Cerro Gordo site:  a rural settlement of the Aztec period in the Basin of Mexico.  Journal of Field Archaeology, V. 12:1-18.
• Susan Toby Evans and Peter Gould  1982  Settlement Models in Archaeology. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 1:275-304.
• Susan Toby Evans 1980.  Spatial Analysis of the Basin of Mexico Settlement: Problems with the Use of the Central Place Model.American Antiquity 45:866-875.

Recent Presentations:

• August 9, 2017.  La evolucion del tecpan Azteca.  In the symposium "Sedes de Poder:  Los Palacios Mesoamericanos" (El Colegio Nacional de Mexico), Linda Manzanilla, organizer.
• January 28, 2017.  Chalchihuitlicue during the Classic and Where Are Her Cousins?  In the International Symposium on the Sociopolitical Organization of Teotihuacan, organized by Linda Manzanilla, Tom Froese, Andres G. Mejia Ramon, and Gina Buckley.