Rhind Lectures

What Are the Rhind Lectures?  

The Rhind Lectures are a series of six talks delivered annually since 1876 by eminent authorities in their subjects. They commemorate Society Fellow Alexander Henry Rhind of Sibster (1833–63) who left a bequest to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland to annually present:

‘a course of not less than six lectures on some branch of archaeology, ethnology, ethnography, or allied topic, in order to assist in the general advancement of knowledge’.

In the years since his death, the Society has hosted Rhind Lectures on topics such as medieval Edinburgh, the early art of Scandinavia, 18th-century architecture in Britain, Mayan archaeology, and the archaeology of the African diaspora.

A full list of past Rhind lecture topics is available on Wikipedia and recordings of Rhind Lectures since 2014 are available on our YouTube channel.

Who Was Alexander Henry Rhind?

A. H. Rhind was born in 1833 and was educated in Wick and at the University of Edinburgh, where he read Natural History and Natural Philosophy. He also attended lectures by Cosmo Innes on Scottish History and Antiquities because of his strong personal interest in these subjects. 

He involved himself in the study of his native Caithness and in 1851 opened a number of chambered tombs, including those at Yarrows.  

In 1853 he investigated the broch at Kettleburn – a report on which appeared in Volume One of the Proceedings of our Society. The finds from the broch were also presented to the Society, Rhind having been elected a Fellow in 1852 and becoming an Honorary Member in 1857, aged only 24. He was subsequently called upon to advise the Society on the organisation of the exhibits in its Museum.  

In 1853 deteriorating health led him to move to England, making his home near Bristol, and from then on, he only visited Sibster in the summer. Nearly every winter he went abroad to pursue his antiquarian interests, primarily in Egypt. 

Rhind was a prolific donor of both Scottish and foreign antiquities to the National Museum here in Edinburgh, including many important items he discovered or bought in Egypt, such as a bilingual papyrus, and the finds from a tomb he excavated. 

While in Egypt he acquired what is now known as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, which was sold after his death to the British Museum. The Rhind Papyrus featured in Neil MacGregor’s History of the World in 100 Objects; it dates to around 1550 BC and has been dubbed “the most significant mathematical document from ancient Egypt.”

Rhind was an active writer of papers, memoranda, and letters. His magnum opus – the book on his work at Thebes in Egypt – was published in 1862 shortly before his death. 

Rhind died at Zurich in 1863, some 23 days short of his 30th birthday, and was buried in the family burial ground at Wick. Among his many bequests he was very generous to our Society, including making the gift of his library of some 1600 volumes, a sum of £400 for excavation in northern Scotland, and the profits and copyright of his book on Thebes.  

In addition, he left the eventuated residue of his estate at Sibster to the Society to endow the lecture series that still perpetuates his name. And so, since the first lecturer was appointed in 1874, the lectures have enabled speakers to present, ‘a course of not less than six lectures on some branch of archaeology, ethnology, ethnography, or allied topic, in order to assist in the general advancement of knowledge’. 

You can find out more about Rhind in this blog post by the Caithness Broch Project, this lecture presented by Dr Margaret Maitland FSAScot as part of the 2015 Rhind Lecture series, this blog post by Laura Keizer on the books left to the Society as part of Rhind’s bequest and now curated by the museum research library, and this 2016 PSAS article by Claire Gilmour FSAScot which revisits his life, with emphasis on his work beyond Scotland and his impact on the study of ancient Egypt.

To find out how you too can leave a gift to the Society in your will, visit our legacies page or call Deborah Roe, Head of Fundraising, on 0131 247 4133 for a confidential conversation.