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Feb 21 1999
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Time Team - Mick Aston |
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On Sunday night after Time Team, Mick Aston joined us to unearth some interesting facts...
Mick Aston : Hi everyone! Enjoy the show?
C4 chat Ed : Hi Mick
Cloveruk : I adore your shows and your excellent work on TT, what made you become a archaeologist? What qualifications do u need? How did you get into time team?
Mick Aston : Gawsh, three questions! How did I get into it, well... I had parents who were very keen to take me round places, then of course I went to university and found there were lots of archaeologists there who taught me all about it. The main qualification is enthusiasm I think, it doesn't pay very well *grin*. And how to get into Time Team, well... with Tim Taylor (the producer) we kind of devised the idea. He was the one who really got the show going with Channel 4. I help people get on the show now, because it's who you know - a lot of people on it now are my ex-students and postgrads.
Barny : is there a lot of legal work to be done before a dig ??
Mick Aston : Not a lot, but yes, obviously you have to have permission, all the health and safety regulations have to be followed, and of course if you think there are going to be *bodies*, you have to get a Home Office license. It's an exhumation you know! Bit like a crime scene really.
Anna Bewick : Today's programme was unusually modern - is there a boundary to the 'end' of archaeology?
Mick Aston : No. There's an archaeology of the present day, because archaeology is about understanding people and societies from physical evidence. So the coca-cola can, you see, is a prime piece of archaeological evidence.
Nanette : What excited you most about todays Time Team?
Mick Aston : I think it was because it was so recent - it was very poignant. I mean the contemporaries of that crew, you know, some of them are still alive. That's very... I mean, I described it in the Time Team report that it was a bit too much to take really.
Hootch : How do you decide where your digs take place?
Mick Aston : Aw gosh. People write into us with ideas - that's still the main source. And then the researchers and the producer, Tim Taylor, and others investigate as to whether it'd make a good film or not. Because we can do the archaeology almost anywhere, but it doesn't always work as a programme.
baggers : Have any digs recovered absolutly nothing and so not been shown on tv?
Mick Aston : Yes and no. Yes some haven't found very much, but yes they've been on the telly. The Cheddar ones, there were very few finds. I think we have to have a qualification, though, we have to say 'that's not what the programme's about', it's about *how* we do it, what we have to think about, what we have to do, the decisions we have to take... so technically it doesn't matter if we don't find anything.
FTW : Question For Mick - Why do you restrict the time you spend on site to only 3 days! mikeg : Does the time limit on Time Team digs mean you have to compromise ?
Mick Aston : The original decision about three days was because we all have day jobs, and we couldn't take too much time off the original work *grin*. It's also very expensive with three camera crews but the only compromise really is that we just do three days work, we could go on for a long time after but we just stop. So they're what's called 'archaeological evaluations'. They're really just to 'test' if something's there.
Paula : Which, if any, of the Time Team digs left you especially baffled?
Mick Aston : Oh most of them I think.. Ohhh dear. Honestly... we have fairly modest aims, and I think you know, I think we're usually pretty happy with the explanation - that's not to say of course that the explanation won't be turned over in the future with more work, they often are.
Slayer : What is the most unusual find you have ever made, on your own or with the time team crew?
Mick Aston : Oooof. We've made 46 programmes, it's all a blur! And I've been in archaeology for... 37 years now. So, er, I'm sorry, I wouldn't know where to start answering that one!
DaveO : what has been your favourite dig?
Mick Aston : I don't have a favourite actually, people often ask me that. But I have favourite moments in them. The Stoke-on-Trent dig (the first prog this series) had some great moments in it and the last two programmes, the ones in the Caribbean, are fab (hard life, innit!)
Cloveruk : Mick, where do u get your cool coloured jumpers from? They are brill
Mick Aston : You need to look in the Time Team Club magazine, next issue - all explained. You can get that from Channel 4 (see timeteam.channel4.com). All is revealed!!
billsmith : Mick, there seemed to be some tension in today's programme between archaeologists and aircraft enthusiasts. What will happen to the finds ? You often hear about things like machine guns being sold for money.
Mick Aston : Yes, in this case all the finds go to one of the aircraft museums in East Anglia. Except for the few that are going into the memorial for the crew. Which I think is the correct thing to do. But you're quite right, a lot of stuff is sold on the market.
Conian : Is Tony Robinson really as ignorant about archeology as he likes to make out?
Mick Aston : Not after 46 programmes. But it is his job to ask the sort of questions that the person in the street would ask. On the viewers' behalf, you see, that's the idea.
prolfe : When the three days is over is there ever a time when you want to carry on with the dig because the finds are so exciting?
Mick Aston : No, because I'm usually knackered after three days *grin*. But in about half the programmes, the local archaeologists carry on for anything up to a fortnight. But in the other half, the recording is done and then it's shut down.
Laney : What period of history is your favourite and why?
Mick Aston : Ohhh... it's really the period from the end of the Roman period (about 400AD) to about 1200 AD - what used to be called the Dark Ages. The reason is that that is when much of the landscape around us - the villages and so on - were developed. And yet we know so little about it! (oh I just want to add, that my role in TT and being a professor, I have to be interested in all periods. But that one's just a personal favourite.)
Dave J Bailey : What ingredients make a good Time Team?
Mick Aston : A nice location, an interesting problem, *some* good finds, good local archaeologists to work with, and I suppose enough suspense to keep Tony hopping about and then a sort of satisfactory drawing-together at the end. And a wine or a pub scene! We like that. Channel 4 don't let us always do one.
peterhad : Will Phil ever have his Hat surgically removed ?
Mick Aston grins, I'll have to ask Phil that. I'm not his agent. Heh.
richmoorechat : What advice would you give to us budding archaeologists before we all start digging up are gardens - how to set about it etc.
Mick Aston : Depends on how old you are really. As kids, you should join the Young Archaeologists Club. As adults, you can study it as a subject at University or you can join your local archaeological society - there's one certainly for every county, at least one. You should go to extra-mural classes on archaeology put on by your local University....and if you want to find out generally what's going on, you can get in touch with the Council For British Archaeology based in York. They issue a magazine 6 times a year. And - subscribe to Current Archaeology.
7Bob : If you could travel back and witness one event or meet one person from the past, what would it be?
Mick Aston : I'll give you two shall I ? :)
C4 chat Ed : please
Mick Aston : Firstly I'd like to go back to the time when agriculture was introduced as an idea. Probably about 4000BC. Secondly, I would like to go back to the 10th Century A.D when we think a lot of villages were founded. I'd be very interested in meeting the ordinary everyday farming folk. The people doing the work on the ground.
Katie 1987 : Do you have hobbies that don't involve diging up ground
Mick Aston : Yes. *chuckles*. Well... yes and no... because I like gardening, but I also like music, particularly classical, and cooking - I'm a great cook. I like walking too, although when I go walking I invariably end up looking at archaeological sites. What I most enjoy, I spose, when I'm not doing archaeology, is having some friends round, nice bottles of wine and a good meal, and good conversation, oh yes.
wcn : What are your feelings about metal detectorists. Can they play a useful role in archaeology?
Mick Aston : Yeah... metal detectorists who work with archaeologists and who give their finds to the local museum are fine! The metal detector is another useful tool to archaeology. The problem is people using them for treasure hunting, rifling sites, you know and selling or keeping the finds. Not telling anybody about them.
PhilChamberlain : My 4 year-old daughter wants to know why you found so many nails on the Small Hythe dig?
Mick Aston : Ah right, a very good question from a 4 year old! The answer is because they were both making ships there and also breaking up old ships. The ships were made of wooden planks that was nailed together. What a splendid question.
Goodbody : If you could bury one thing now for future archeologists, what would it be?
Mick Aston : The Millenium Dome! (I get asked that a lot) They'd be TOTALLY confused of course.
Minxmum : Why do you think Time Team has such a wide appeal?
Mick Aston : I think there're two main reasons - one is that it is archaeology as it happens. It's not like taking people to a site dug 20 years ago already finished and pretty boring. The second point is that largely because of Tony we do try to explain everything in a way that everybody can understand. He stops us using jargon and, you know, the special long words that we would use :)
DeeL : What do you say to people who believe that the landscape is being destroyed by archaeology?
Mick Aston : Well it's patently untrue, isn't it! What a strange idea.
Leslie : Did you enjoy blowing up the ammunition on your birthday?
Mick Aston : Yes. I was like a kid again! It was fab. They also made me a big cake, bless.
Chriso : Has time team ever proved that the history books are slightly wrong?
Mick Aston : Gosh. Erm... No, it's not as dramatic as that. It's just adding new bits of information, slight changes of opinion, that sort of thing, you know. Archaeology is very accumulative.
fiddler of the reels : What conclusions do you think archeologists of the future will draw from what WE leave behind?
Mick Aston : Ohhh yes, I do whole lectures on this! Well. They will see us as a very clever, technologically advance society - but INCREDIBLY wasteful. And stupid in how we look after the environment (or total lack of it in fact). The best example again is the cocacola can, the aluminium can - a very good material, very expensive to produce, beautifully designed, we use it once and chuck it away! Nobody in the past would understand that *at all*, for one minute.
C4 chat Ed : That's it folks. Thanks for joining us. Thanks Mick.
Cloveruk : Thank you for such a ccol chat Mick, you are brill. You have my respect
Mick Aston : Well, gosh, thanks very much for the support everyone! We're going to make another series this year of another 13 programmes. Starting in March. I'm just overwhelmed by everyone's interest! Keep watching! Good night!
prodda : Extra - brilliant programme tonight Mick
holmesy : you're my hero
Alibeth : From Bethan: I love your programme (8 years old!)
Markkkkk : Keep going Mick untill the whole of the UK is excavated
ztt : good luck with the new series
El Bonio : excellent program tonight mick, keep up the good work
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