Peter A Thomas moved to South Deerfield from southern Maine with his family in 1955; graduated from Frontier Regional High School in 1962.  He completed a BA in American History at UMass-Amherst, an MA in early American history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MA and PhD in Anthropology at UMass-Amherst. 

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In September 1979, Thomas founded the Consulting Archaeology Program at the University of Vermont, where he remained its Director and Research Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology until 2000.

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From 1997 until 2015, Thomas worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency as an Environmental and Historic Preservation Officer during disaster recovery operations throughout the US. 

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Thomas is currently "retired", living in South Deerfield, and re-engaged in historic research on the Connecticut Valley, with a focus on Deerfield and Native communities living in the valley during the seventeenth century.  Some archaeology creeps in now and then.

Ringing the church bell at Founders Day ceremonies at the Second Parish Congregational Church in South Deerfield, once known as Bloody Brook.

Weaving at a small loom during a "Wooly Wonders Weekend" demonstration at Historic Deerfield.  Exhibits illustrated the significance of wool to the early settlers and the tasks associated with its transformation into finished products.