Michael Antony "Mick" Aston, FSA (1 July 1946 – 24 June 2013) was an English archaeologist who specialised in Early Medieval landscape archaeology. As an academic, he taught at a number of universities across the United Kingdom, and helped popularise the discipline amongst the British public by appearing as the resident academic on the Channel 4 television series Time Team from 1994 to 2011. Through the series, Aston became well known to the viewing public for his trademark colourful jumpers and flowing, untidy hairstyle. He also published a number of books on the subject of archaeology, some of which were written for an academic audience, and others for the general public.Early in his career, Aston worked for Oxford City and County Museum and later became the first County Archaeologist for Somerset. He taught classes at the University of Birmingham, University of Oxford and the University of Bristol. With the television producer Tim Taylor, Aston began to work on creating shows that would bring archaeology into popular consciousness, being involved in the creation of the short-lived Time Signs (1991), which was followed by the far more successful Time Team, which began airing in 1994 and ended in 2013. He retired from his university posts in 2004, but continued working on Time Team and commenced writing regular articles for British Archaeology magazine.Aston specialised in landscape archaeology, focusing on the study of British landscapes in the Early Medieval period (circa 400 to 1200 AD). He had a particular research interest in the archaeology of towns and monastic sites from this period. As site director, he also undertook a ten-year project investigating the manor at Shapwick, Somerset.
He studied geography and archaeology at Birmingham University. He joined the University of Bristol in 1979, organizing lifelong learning and continuing education in archaeology.
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He worked on a major research project investigating the origins of the village of Shapwick, Somerset. He carried out research on monastic and landscape archaeology throughout Europe.
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Known for being on Time Team.
Miscellaneous
Title
Year
Status
Character
Time Team
1994-2012
TV Series documentary archaeological consultant - 202 episodes
Seven Ages of Britain
2003
TV Mini-Series documentary consultant: archaeology