From the Guardian:

Archaeologist and broadcaster Mick Aston, who found fame with TV programme Time Team, has died aged 66.

Close friend and former colleague Phil Harding, who also worked on the popular Channel 4 series, said he had received the news from Professor Aston’s son James.

Time Team’s official Facebook and Twitter accounts also paid tribute to the retired academic: “It is with a very heavy heart that we’ve been informed that our dear colleague Mick Aston has passed away. Our thoughts are with his family.”

Dr Harding said that although his friend had suffered health problems, learning of his death just two weeks after talking to him on the phone for the last time had come as a shock.

“It just seems so incredible, like a bad dream, but unfortunately this is no dream,” the 62-year-old said. “He was a seriously good mate and a seriously good archaeologist, a unique man. Everybody loved him, he just had a way with people. I cannot believe there was anybody who disliked him, he just had such a relaxed way.

“He had incredible knowledge and an effortless way of making archaeology accessible to people.”

Born and raised in Oldbury in the West Midlands, Professor Aston was instantly recognisable on television for his colourful jumpers.

He lived in Somerset, and continued to take part in archaeology projects after leaving Time Team acrimoniously last year, when he accused the programme of dumbing down.

Before being named an emeritus professor at the university of Bristol and an honorary visiting professor at Exeter and Durham, he first joined the cast led by actor and presenter Tony Robinson when the show began in 1994.

Professor Francis Pryor, who also worked with Professor Aston on the programme, paid tribute to a man who he described as “remarkable archaeologist who could really dig”.

He said: “I will remember him fondly – was a warm, loving, nice man. He did very good work on original British towns which is still being built on and he was an authority on monastic church archaeology and early medieval archaeology.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/jun/25/professor-mick-aston-dies

He’s my age

He’s my age era

>after leaving Time Team acrimoniously last year, when he accused the programme of dumbing down.<

Can’t help thinking Tony was partly responsible for that. Mick seemed to be getting increasingly impatient with Tony’s habitual negative attitude, which was starting to work against the programme, especially as the supposedly well-qualified Mary Ann Ochota tended to side with unqualified Tony against Mick.

Bubblecar said:

>after leaving Time Team acrimoniously last year, when he accused the programme of dumbing down.<

Can’t help thinking Tony was partly responsible for that. Mick seemed to be getting increasingly impatient with Tony’s habitual negative attitude, which was starting to work against the programme, especially as the supposedly well-qualified Mary Ann Ochota tended to side with unqualified Tony against Mick.

They used to accuse Tony of being overly optimistic, expecting a villa with mosaic floors in every second field.

Angus Prune said:

Bubblecar said:

>after leaving Time Team acrimoniously last year, when he accused the programme of dumbing down.<

Can’t help thinking Tony was partly responsible for that. Mick seemed to be getting increasingly impatient with Tony’s habitual negative attitude, which was starting to work against the programme, especially as the supposedly well-qualified Mary Ann Ochota tended to side with unqualified Tony against Mick.

They used to accuse Tony of being overly optimistic, expecting a villa with mosaic floors in every second field.

Let’s dedicate TNDC to him, being especially appropriate.

>They used to accuse Tony of being overly optimistic, expecting a villa with mosaic floors in every second field.

Yes but then he’d treat the dig as an abject failure if they didn’t. That was OK for comical effect but his disrespectful stance towards the archaeologists and their decisions got a bit much towards the end. The show itself was responsible for raising the status and profile of archaeology as an important science in the British landscape, and Tony’s attitude needed to change to reflect that. Instead he seemed to think his role was to play the role of a skeptical “Joe Public” who could never make much sense of these crazy archaeologists and their ways.

Bubblecar said:

>They used to accuse Tony of being overly optimistic, expecting a villa with mosaic floors in every second field.

Yes but then he’d treat the dig as an abject failure if they didn’t. That was OK for comical effect but his disrespectful stance towards the archaeologists and their decisions got a bit much towards the end. The show itself was responsible for raising the status and profile of archaeology as an important science in the British landscape, and Tony’s attitude needed to change to reflect that. Instead he seemed to think his role was to play the role of a skeptical “Joe Public” who could never make much sense of these crazy archaeologists and their ways.

I’d take that bloody Knighthood off him, I would!

Bubblecar said:

after leaving Time Team acrimoniously last year, when he accused the programme of dumbing down.

Is that when the tittie shots started?

Yes. Vale Mick Aston.
A, a clever archaeologist and a fine man. I’ll miss him.

a great pity. he was a good presenter of information and 66 is a little young.

Boris said:

a great pity. he was a good presenter of information and 66 is a little young.

yeah :(

There’s something very basic about ferreting around in the ground finding things. I don’t know whether it goes back to our hunter-gatherer’s instinct for digging up roots and tubers, but it just clicks with some people.

My first experience of it would have been when I was about 17, during an excavation at Wall, near Lichfield. My friend Dennis and I had found out about it through the Council for British Archaeology newsletter. I remember uncovering the handle of a big piece of amphora – a Roman wine jar. This really fat, pinky-grey coloured clay from the Mediterranean had somehow got to the middle of Staffordshire for the Roman army. It was a “crikey!” moment. The fact that you’re the first person to see it for 2,000 years or whatever, there is a buzz in that, no doubt about it.

At Birmingham University, I very quickly got on to the digs organised by Philip Rahtz in the history department. This opened up a new world where there were more people with my eccentric interests. And it was the late 60s, so archaeology was even a sexy activity. My recollection was it was seven days a week, digging 8am to 8pm with rows of girls in bikinis, and then parties all night. Although during the day I always seemed to end up in a cesspit. People don’t retrieve stuff from cesspits, by and large, so there’d often be pottery, or even rings or broaches, in the bottom of them. There was always this distinctive green staining of the cess, but no smell after 2,000 years.

I always wanted to know about how things fitted into the landscape. Was it an important place? Where did they grow their crops? How did they get to the market town? That sort of stuff fires me up.

I still come across things that are a bit of a surprise. For instance, I live in a 1960s bungalow and I’ve found two pieces of Roman pottery out in the back garden. What the hell is that about? I’m on the north side of the Mendips, where you wouldn’t expect a Roman settlement. I’ve had two pieces of Saxon pottery as well. It is a real conundrum why we’ve got this stuff – if it was on the surface I might think somebody was setting me up. But the lesson is that you find things and you have to think: what’s that about? Because the archaeology doesn’t lie.