Professor Michael Aston is best known as the leading archaeologist on the popular Channel 4 television series Time Team. He is an Emeritus Professor at Bristol University, and Honorary Visiting Professor at Durham and Exeter Universities.
News
The impressive Shapwick Project, initiated and led by Mick
Aston, was highly commended for Best
Archaeological Project in this
year's British Archaeological Awards, and described as A
highly successful exercise in multidisciplinary, archaeological
landscape research with involvement by the local community built into
the project design from day one.
The final scholarly report on this investigation of a parish in
Somerset has been published:
The
Shapwick Project, Somerset: A Rural Landscape Explored edited
by Chris Gerrard and Mick Aston.
In September Mick witnessed an excavation inspired by his own aerial photographs, taken back in 1977. From the air he had identified the lost medieval settlement of Playstreet at Bickenhall, Somerset. Archaeologist Tanya James organised a dig by volunteers to uncover it, which Mick visited on the last day.
Lectures
During the winter Mick usually gives illustrated talks up and down the land. This winter sees fewer lectures, but he will giving his popular talk on the Making of Time Team at:
- Exmouth Community College on 1 December 2008 with all proceeds to Buturi Water and School Project
- Jorvik Viking Festival on 18 February 2009
- Durham in March 2009.
Time Team
Filming on Series 16 ran as usual from March to October. Sites included Looe in Cornwall, Caerwent in Wales, Knockdhu in Cairncastle, Northern Ireland, Salisbury Cathedral and The Priory in Blythburgh, near Southwold, Suffolk. If the usual schedule is followed, we can expect to see the resulting programmes on Channel 4 from early in the new year.
Scholarly papers
Mick's latest paper has appeared in Somerset Archaeology and Natural History volume 151 (2008). It explores the origins of his home parish of Winscombe and was written jointly with his long-time colleague at Bristol University, Michael Costen. This expands considerably on his popular article on the topic in British Archaeology July 2007 (see below under Mick's Travels).It is the second of what is intended as a
series of scholarly articles by Mick on Somerset monasteries and
landscape. The
first was on Muchelney Abbey in Somerset Archaeology and
Natural History volume 150 (2007). This follows his
interesting popular piece on the
topic in British Archaeology September 2006.
Mick argues that the
abbey originated in a group of hermitages on islands
in the marsh.
Mick's Travels
British Archaeology has been carrying a regular contribution from Mick, called Mick's Travels. In the November/December issue Mick Aston goes to Iona, an early centre of Christianity.
In the September/October issue Mick considers the Norman impact in County Durham.
In the July/August issue Mick muses on early monasteries in the Vale of Glamorgan.
In the May/June issue Mick delves into origins of the many places in Cornwall named after local saints.
The March/April issue has Mick wandering in Anglo-Saxon North Mercia, looking at early monastery and minster sites, including the famed Saxon churches at Repton, Derbyshire, and Breedon on the Hill, Leicestershire.
In the January/February 2008 issue Mick searches for traces of the Angles in Suffolk. He returns to West Stow, which he first visited nearly 30 years ago, takes a look at the new National Trust visitor centre at Sutton Hoo and tramps around other sites looking for early monasteries and the like.
The November/December 2007 issue had Mick explaining how he combined a Time Team shoot in Barra with a trip of his own, working up the islands of the Outer Hebrides in his camper van.
The September/October issue featured a piece by Mick on the association of Roman forts in County Durham with early churches. He was struck by the link while filming two episodes of Time Team in the area.
The July/August issue came complete with Mick's shortest travel yet. He turns his landscape archaeologist's eye on his oddly-shaped home parish of Winscombe in Somerset.
In the May/June issue he returned to his home territory of the Black Country, visiting Halesowen in the West Midlands (formerly in Worcestershire).
The March/April issue had Mick writing on his visit last year to the Isle of Man.
The January/February 2007 issue featured Mick exploring the border between Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, and discovering the county of Wincombshire, lost as a result of boundary changes in the Middle Ages. His starting point is a visit he made to the Worcestershire Young Archaeologists' Club.
The November/December issue had a contribution from Mick on Anglesey. Time Team's dig there earlier this year brought back memories; Mick first visited the island in his teens. He reflects on its spectacular array of monuments from prehistoric tombs to medieval churches. The piece has a mass of illustrations, including the impressive aerial shots for which Mick is noted.
September/October 2006 issue had the first of his columns. Given his fascination with early monasteries, it will be no surprise that his first field report was on the estate of Muchelney Abbey in Somerset. Mick delves into the very beginnings of the abbey and the Saxon royal estate that preceded it.
