Rhind Lectures
The Rhind Lectures, a series of six lectures delivered annually, have been given since 1876.
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 26 July 1833 in Wick, Caithness in the north of Scotland. He was educated in the local Pulteneytown Academy at 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: ‘they appealed’, he wrote, ‘so naturally to my then growing old-world tastes, that I was an unfailingly regular attendant’.
Rhind had intended to take law classes, from which he was subsequently diverted by his interest in natural history and archaeology. He involved himself in the study of his native Caithness and in 1851 opened a number of chambered tombs, including those at Yarrows.
Rhind was a prolific excavator and writer with archaeological interests that stretched across Europe. He was elected a Fellow in 1852 before becoming an Honorary Member in 1857, aged only 24.
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. However, nearly every winter he went abroad to pursue his antiquarian interests in Egypt and, in later years, spent part of the winter in Spain, Algiers, France, Italy, and Madeira.
Rhind died at Zurich in 1863, some 23 days short of his 30th birthday, and was duly buried in the family burial ground at Wick. Among his many bequests he was very generous to the Society, including the gift of his library of some 1,600 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.
You can find out more this blog post by the Caithness Broch Project, this lecture presented by Dr Margaret Maitland FSAScot as part of the 2015 Rhind Lecture series, 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.
