Announcing a new book by James Deetz and Patricia Scott Deetz --

Forthcoming in November, 2000:
"THE TIMES OF THEIR LIVES: Life, Love, and Death in Plymouth Colony."

About the book:

Who were the Pilgrims? Far from the somberly clad, stern, and righteous
figures children learn about in school, many of the early settlers of
Plymouth actually dressed in bright colors, drank heavily, and often got
into trouble.

A surprising new look at America's founding fathers and mothers, The Times
of Their Lives draws on a combination of historical archaeology and
ethnographic studies to reveal what seventeenth century Plymouth was really
like. Perhaps the world's foremost expert on the archaeology of Plymouth
Colony, James Deetz has played a key role in the development of historical
archaeology and is responsible for introducing an innovative interpretive
program at Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum in Plymouth. In The
Times of Their Lives, the authors blow the dust off the dull, wooden figures
of tradition and presents the people of Plymouth as vibrant individuals who
lived out complex and colorful lives in a world profoundly different from
our own.

Beginning with an eyewitness account of the first Thanksgiving, The Times of
Their Lives offers a well-rounded, often startling portrait of Plymouth
Colony that includes the legal system, religion, agricultural, family life,
women's roles and gender issues, eating habits, alcohol use, sexual
misconduct, domestic violence, suspicious deaths, and violent crimes. It
also covers the life cycle, from childhood to adulthood to death.

The result is an impeccably researched and highly imaginative work that
shakes up our view of one of the most cherished myths of American history.

Published by W. H. Freeman and Company.

For more information, an advance excerpt, and purchasing information, see
the Plymouth Colony Archive web site (presented by Jim and Trish Deetz and
Chris Fennell) at:

http://www.people.virginia.edu/~jfd3a