Mick Aston

Who was Mick Aston?

Michael Antony "Mick" Aston, FSA 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, which was followed by the far more successful Time Team, which began airing in 1994 and ended in 2013.