Mick Aston

Mick Aston

Professor Michael Antony 'Mick' Aston, FSA (born 1 July 1946) is a prominent English archaeologist. As an academic, he has taught at a number of universities across the United Kingdom, and has 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 has become iconic to the viewing public for his trademark colourful jumpers and flowing, untidy hairstyle. He has also published a number of books on the subject of archaeology, some of which are written for an academic audience, and others for the general public.

Born into a working-class family in Oldbury, West Midlands, Aston studied geography at the University of Birmingham before going on to become a professional archaeologist and gaining further degrees in the subject. Working for Oxford City and County Museum and then becoming the first County Archaeologist for Somerset, he also 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 continues today. He retired from his university posts in 2004, but continued working on Time Team and commenced writing regular articles for British Archaeology magazine.

Aston is a specialist in landscape archaeology, focusing on the study of British landscapes in the Early Mediaeval period (circa 400 to 1200 CE). He has 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.