Rhind Lectures

Rhind Lectures are a series of lectures on ‘some branch of archaeology, ethnology, ethnography, or allied topic’ in order ‘to assist in the general advancement of knowledge’. They have been hosted by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland since 1876. The content of the lectures is usually published in journals or expanded into new works by their authors.

The name commemorates Alexander Henry Rhind, whose bequest to the society funded this lectureship. Rhind directed that his estate be used for this purpose, once the interests of living parties were extinguished, which took place 11 years after his death in 1863. The speaker and subject are selected some three years in advance, allowing the speaker to give a detailed exposition of a topic in their area of expertise.

The Rhind Lectures have continued into the 21st century, and since 2009 the society has published a video file that is freely available to the public.

Lecturers 1876–2008

The total number of lectures in the series in 2012 was 133. The following is a list of all lecturers to 2012, with the title of their lectures where known.

24 1900 The Edwards in Scotland, 1296–1377

Joseph Bain, FSA Scot

25 1901 The Constitution, Organisation, and Law of the Mediaeval Church in Scotland

Bishop Dowden

26 1902 Castellated architecture of Scotland

Thomas Ross

27 1903 Scotland in the Time of Queen Mary

P Hume Brown, MA LLD., Fraser Professor of Ancient (Scottish) History and Palaeography in the University of Edinburgh

28 1904 Roman Scotland

George Macdonald, MA

29 1905 Roman Britain

Dr F Haverfield, MA LLD

30 1906 The Archaeology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions

Professor Archibald Sayce

31 1907 Roman Britain

Dr F Haverfield, MA LLD

32 1908 The Roman Station at Newstead

Mr James Curle

33 1909 The Occupation and use of the land in Scotland in Early Times

Dr David Murray

34 1910 Art of the Period of the Teutonic Migrations

Professor Gerard Baldwin Brown

35 1911 The Records of Scotland

J Maitland Thomson, LLD

36 1912 The Early Chronicles relating to Scotland

Rt Hon Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., President of the Society

37 1913 Some aspects of Scottish Feudalism

Dr George Neilson

38 1913 The Development of writing and printing in Western Europe

Dr W K Dickson

39 1914 The Liturgy and Ceremonial of The Mediaeval Church in Scotland

Mr F C Eeles

40 1915 Medals of the Renaissance

Mr George Francis Hill, Keeper of Coins & Medals, British Museum

41 1916 Celtic Place-Names in Scotland

Professor W J Watson, LLD

42 1917 Arms and Armour

Mr Charles J. ffoulkes, Curator of the Royal Armouries, Tower of London

43 1918 The Prehistoric Monuments of Scotland

Mr A O Curle

44 1919 House Furnishing and Domestic Life in Scotland 1488–1688

Mr John Warrack

45 1920 Painting in the Roman Empire (from the last century of the Republic to about 800 AD)

Mrs Arthur (Eugénie) Strong, British School at Rome

46 1921 Egyptian Science

Professor W M Flinders Petrie

47 1922 Monastic Building in Britain

Mr C R Peers

48 1923 The Civilisation of Greece in the Bronze Age

Dr H R Hall

49 1924 Early Races of Scotland

Professor Thomas H Bryce

50 1925 The Mediaeval Castle in Scotland

Mr W M Mackenzie, Secretary RCAHMS

51 1926 Italian Sculpture of the Renaissance

Mr Eric Maclagan, director, V & A Museum

52 1927 Roman Britain

Sir George Macdonald, KCB FBA LLD

53 1928 The Ancient Connections between Scotland and Norway

Professor A W Brøgger

54 1929 The History of the Brooch

Mr Reginald A Smith, BA FSA

55 1930 The Hittites

Professor Garstang

56 1931 Monastic Life and its influence on the Civilisation of Scotland

Mr George Gordon Coulton, Litt D DLitt LLD FBA

57 1932 The Megalithic Culture of Northern Europe

Dr C A Nordman, Helsingfors

58 1933 English Illumination from AD 700 to the end of the Fifteenth Century

Mr Eric G Millar, DLitt

59 1934 Augustan Civilisation in Western Europe

Mr Ian A Richmond

60 1935 Early Anglo Saxon Art and Archaeology

Mr E T Leeds, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum

61 1936 The Archaeology of the Iberian Peninsula

Professor P Bosch Gimpera

62 1937 Mediaeval Edinburgh

Dr C A Malcolm

63 1938 Excavations at Ras Shamra

Monsieur Claude Shaeffer

64 1939 Early Art of Scandinavia

Professor Haakon Shetelig

1940 Postponed (delivered in April 1942)

65 1941 The Province of Mar

Dr W Douglas Simpson

66 1942 Jurisdictions of Mediaeval Scotland

Dr W C Dickinson

67 1943 The Topography of Roman Scotland

Mr O G S Crawford, FSA

68 1944 The Development of Tribal Society in Scotland

Professor V G Childe, DLitt DSc FBA V-PSA

69 1945 The Scottish Burghs

Dr W Mackay Mackenzie

70 1946 Spring Scandinavian Art of the Post-Christian Pagan Period

Professor Haakon Shetelig

71 1946 Oct Castles and Cannon: A Study of Early Artillery Fortifications in England

Mr Bryan H St John O’Neil

1947 No lecture

72 1948 Early Christian Monuments in the Near East

Professor W M Calder, LLD

73 1949 First: The Mediaeval Stone Carver in Scotland

(Two series of lectures delivered) Mr James S Richardson, LLD

74 Second: Regional House-Styles: their origins and development: recent studies in South Wales

Sir Cyril Fox, DLitt FSA

75 1950 (Series of seven lectures) Periods of Highland Civilization

Miss I F Grant LLD

76 1951 Discipline of Field Archaeology

Professor R E Mortimer Wheeler

77 1952 Greek Sculpture: The Century after Pheidias

Mr Bernard Ashmole, MC MA BLitt FBA

78 1953 Architecture in Elizabethan England

Mr John Summerson, CBE FSA ARIBA

79 1954 The Laboratory in the service of Art and Archaeology

Dr H J Plenderleith

80 1955 A Survey of American Archaeology

Dr G H S Bushnell

81 1956 Classical inspiration in Medieval Art

Mr W F Oakenshott

1957 No lecture due to the death of Professor S P O’Riordain

82 1958 The Historical Local Institutions of Scotland

Professor G S Pryde of Glasgow

83 1959 The Role of Constantinople in Byzantine Art

Professor D Talbot Rice

84 1960 Roman Imperial Art

Mr J B Ward Perkins, Director of The British School at Rome

85 1961 The Origins of the Late Celtic Art

Professor Haseloff of Würzburg

86 1962 March Mounds of the Middle East: their formation and excavation

Mr Seton Lloyd, CBE

87 Nov The Prehistoric Origins of Europe

Professor Stuart Piggott, BLitt DLitt HUM

88 1964 The Coins of the Ancient Celts

Mr D F Allen, BA FBA FSA

89 1965 March Anglo-Saxon Pottery and the Settlement of England

Mr J N L Myres, MA LLD FSA

90 Oct Cultural Structure and Movement in East Asia from the Neolithic Period to the Unification of China

Mr William Watson, MA

91 1966/67 Scottish Architects and English Architecture in the 18th Century

Dr PJ Murray

92 1967/68 Late Medieval Monumental Sculpture in the West Highlands

Dr K A Steer

93 1968/69 The Roman Frontier in Germany in the Light of New Research

Prof Dr Hans Schonberger

94 1969/70 The Furnishing of Medieval Churches in Scotland

The Rt Rev Monsigneur D McRoberts S.T.L.

95 1970/71 Plough and Field shape from Prehistoric Times to c1500 AD

Prof Axel Steensberg

96 1972/73 Byzantine Mosaic and Wall Paintings

D Winfield

97 1973/74 Aspects of Archaeology in Iran

D B Stronach

98 1974/75 Scottish Silversmiths and Their Work

Stuart Maxwell

99 1975/76 Interior Decoration in Great Britain

G Beard

100 1976/77 Pictish Art and Society

Dr I Henderson

101 1977/78 Pre-Roman Celtic Art

Prof O-H Frey

102 1978/79 The Medieval Cathedrals of Scotland

Dr R Cant

103 1979/80 The Course of Architecture in Ireland

Dr M Craig

104 1980/81 The Industrial Heritage

Prof S G E Lythe

105 1981/82 Pre-Roman and Native Settlement between the Tyne and Forth

Prof G Jobey

106 1982/83 Aspects of the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in the Netherlands and Britain

Prof JD van der Waals

107 1983/84 The Danube Frontier of the Roman Empire

Prof J J Wilkes

1985/86

108 1986/87 Culture, Tradition and Artifact

Dr A Gailey

109 1987/88 The Archaeology of Death in Ancient Egypt

Dr A Rosalie Davie

110 1988/89 An Heroic Age: War and Society in Northern Britain AD 450–850

Prof Leslie Alcock

111 1989/90 The Archaeology of the Slavs

Dr Martin Gojda

112 1990/91 The Revival of Medieval and Early Renaissance Architecture in Scotland 1745–1930

Dr D M Walker

113 1991/92 Altering The Earth: The Origins of Monuments in Britain and Continental Europe

Prof R Bradley

114 1992/93 Scottish Monastic life on the Eve of the Reformation

Dr Mark Dilworth

115 1993/94 Oral Narrative in Scotland

Donald A MacDonald

116 1994/95 Enlarging the Past: the contribution of Wetland Archaeology

Professor John and Dr Bryony Coles

117 1995/96 Death and Wealth in Viking Scotland

Professor James Graham-Campbell

118 1996/97 The Food of the Scots Professor Alexander Fenton

119 1997/98 Scottish Royal Palaces: The Architecture of the Royal Residences during the Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Periods

John Dunbar

120 1998/99 The Origins of Insular Monasticism

Professor Charles Thomas

121 1999–2000 Significant Figures: Anderson, Baldwin-Brown, Childe, AO Curle, J Curle, A McBain, L Mann, WF Skene

Dr D J Breeze; Dr DV Clarke; Professor D Meek; Dr JNG Ritchie; Mr WDH Sellar

122 2000–2001 Art as Archaeology, Archaeology as Art: Transformations through material culture

Professor Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, University of Cambridge

123 2001–2002 Peoples Between The Oceans

Professor Barry Cunliffe, University of Oxford

124 2002–2003 Lines from the past: towards an anthropological archaeology of inscription

Professor Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen

125 2003–2004 Court, Capital and Country: the Emergence of Renaissance Scotland

Professor Michael Lynch, University of Edinburgh

126 2004–2005 Men who turned towards the light: Cult and creativity in the Romans’ world

Professor Greg Woolf, University of St Andrews

127 2006 Rock and Cave Art

Paul Bahn

128 2007 Living in an Age of Stone: Neolithic people and their worlds

Professor Gabriel Cooney, University College Dublin

129 2008 Archaeology and the Sea in Scandinavia and Britain

Professor Ole Crumlin-Pedersen, Denmark

Lecturers 2009-

130 2009 New Light on the Dawn: a new perspective on the Neolithic Revolution in Southwest Asia Emeritus Professor Trevor Watkins, University of Edinburgh

131 2010 Design versus Dogma: Reflections on Field Archaeology

Professor Martin Carver, University of York

132 2011 Material and spiritual engagements; Britain and Ireland in the first age of metal

Dr Stuart Needham

133 2012 On the windy edge of nothing: Vikings in the North Atlantic world – ecological and social journeys

Professor Kevin Edwards, University of Aberdeen

134 2013 ‘Magnificent for the beauty and extent of its buildings and worthy of everlasting fame’: the architecture of the Scottish late medieval Church, by Richard Fawcett of University of St Andrews (2013).