Lizzie Wade

Mexico City

Science Writer at Science Magazine

Founder and Writer at The Lizzie Wade Weekly

Articles

What Can We Learn From Apocalyptic Times of the Past?

1 month ago | smithsonianmag.com | Lizzie Wade

More than a millennium ago, a Maya community collapsed in the face of a devastating drought. One writer joined an intrepid archaeologist to upend what they thought they understood about why it all happened Ancient glyphs, forgotten temples, abandoned cities decaying in the jungle: The collapse of the Maya Empire is one of archaeology’s most notorious apocalypses. It’s also been presented to us as one of the most mysterious, and the most frightening.
I Used to Hope Humans Were Headed for Extinction. Now I Know That Fantasy Allows Us the Easy Way Out.

1 month ago | slate.com | Lizzie Wade

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. I’ve spent most of my life terrified of climate change and the apocalyptic future it seems destined to create. I was 2 years old when climate scientist James Hansen historically testified before Congress about the “greenhouse effect,” and things haven’t exactly gotten better from there.
Psychoactive drugs found in mysterious temple may have helped ancient Peruvians cement power

1 month ago | science.org | Lizzie Wade

As John Rick excavated one of the many underground chambers at the ancient Peruvian site of Chavín de Huántar in 2017 his trowel hit something intriguing, and exceedingly delicate. It was a cigarette-size tube made of animal bone and packed full of sediment. The following year, his team found almost two dozen more. Rick, an archaeologist at Stanford University, suspected these bone tubes were pieces of ancient drug paraphernalia.
Disaster is coming, and the solution to healing is community — not chaos

1 month ago | ourcommunitynow.com | Lizzie Wade

Like it or not, disaster is coming. There will be a hurricane, earthquake, fire, flood, pandemic, storm, or maybe even war, perhaps sooner rather than later. How should you prepare? Some Americans, across the political spectrum, are buying guns and practicing military tactics that they expect to need if society collapses. But civilization doesn’t have to end for help to arrive dangerously slowly.
Disaster is coming, and the solution to healing is community - not chaos

1 month ago | nypost.com | Lizzie Wade

Like it or not, disaster is coming. There will be a hurricane, earthquake, fire, flood, pandemic, storm, or maybe even war, perhaps sooner rather than later. How should you prepare? Some Americans, across the political spectrum, are buying guns and practicing military tactics that they expect to need if society collapses. But civilization doesn’t have to end for help to arrive dangerously slowly.
Redated artifacts rewrite how Indigenous people responded to European contact

1 month ago | science.org | Lizzie Wade

Ten years ago, archaeologist Jennifer Birch thought she had a good handle on when and why Ontario’s largest excavated Iroquois village, known as the Jean-Baptiste Lainé Site, was abandoned. Because archaeologists had found few European artifacts there, they figured people deserted the village around 1535, shortly after the first French explorers entered Canada’s interior. But Sturt Manning, a radiocarbon dating expert at Cornell University, saw a way to test that picture.
Mediterranean hunter-gatherers voyaged across the open sea 8500 years ago

2 months ago | science.org | Lizzie Wade

Archaeologists thought they knew how Malta was first settled: by ancient farmers who reached the remote Mediterranean archipelago some 7400 years ago, crossing the open sea from Sicily with pottery, crops, and domesticated animals in tow. Now, an analysis published today in Nature reveals a previously unknown coastal site brimming with stone tools, hearths, shells, and animal bones that turns the old view on its head.
Apocalypse: How Catastrophe Transformed Our World and Can Forge New Futures

Mar 29, 2025 | libraryjournal.com | Lizzie Wade

. May 2025. 320p. ISBN 9780063097308. $32. SCI COPY ISBN Journalist and Science correspondent Wade looks at apocalypses through the lens of archaeology.
The Next Big Idea Club’s May 2025 Must-Read Books

Mar 7, 2025 | nextbigideaclub.com | Mark Blyth |Nicolo Fraccaroli |Lizzie Wade |Adam J. Kucharski

I’m pleased to share what I consider the most promising, must-read nonfiction titles scheduled for release in May 2025. These titles will be included in our longlist of potential titles for Season 27 of the Next Big Idea Club. In a couple of months, our curators—Susan Cain, Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink—will review all of my monthly selections, narrow the list down to a handful of finalists and, ultimately, choose our two official season titles, which we will send the members.
‘Creepy’ puppets may have starred in rituals at ancient Central American pyramid

Mar 4, 2025 | science.org | Lizzie Wade

When University of Warsaw archaeologist Jan Szymański and colleagues unearthed five clay figurines on top of the ancient pyramid at the site of San Isidro in El Salvador, they were immediately enchanted by their striking facial features. All had open mouths, some with visible tongues; the three largest had detachable heads with small holes in their necks and the top of their heads.