Michael Antony Aston was an English archaeologist who specialised in Early Medieval landscape archaeology. Over the course of his career, he lectured at both the University of Bristol and University of Oxford and published fifteen books on archaeological subjects. A keen populariser of the discipline, Aston was widely known for appearing as the resident academic on the Channel 4 television series Time Team from 1994 to 2011.
Aston (left) at the Time Team Big Roman Dig in 2005 with the programme's originator and producer, Tim Taylor
Aston (centre) with presenter Sir Tony Robinson (left) and Roman expert Guy de la Bédoyère (right) during a Time Team dig
Mick Aston and Tony Robinson, Time Team series 8 shoot at Waltham Fields, Whittington, Gloucestershire, England, 2000
Time Team is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned in 2022 on online platforms YouTube and Patreon. Created by television producer Tim Taylor and presented by actor Tony Robinson, each episode featured a team of specialists carrying out an archaeological dig over a period of three days, with Robinson explaining the process in lay terms. The specialists changed throughout the programme's run, although it consistently included professional archaeologists such as Mick Aston, Carenza Lewis, Francis Pryor and Phil Harding. The sites excavated ranged in date from the Palaeolithic to the Second World War.
From left to right: Tony Robinson, Mick Aston, and Guy de la Bédoyère in 2007
Aston with producer Tim Taylor in 2005
Aston and Robinson, Time Team Series 8 shoot at Waltham Fields, Whittington, Gloucestershire, England, 2000, transmitted 2001