Hall V

What we lost

From the archivist

Not everything was kept. Libraries burned, languages fell silent, whole ways of knowing left no written trace. This hall keeps what we know was lost, so that the absence itself is remembered.

3 fragments in this hall · Africa 2 · Asia 1

Low ruined walls and foundations of pale limestone on a rise under a grey, clouded sky at the site of the Serapeum in Alexandria, with a single tall granite column standing alone on the right and a rope barrier along the path in the foreground.

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300 to 250 BCE

The Library of Alexandria

Alexandria, Egypt · Africa

Two photographs side by side: on the left, in black and white, a giant standing Buddha carved into a pale cliff, its face cut away, its robe falling in folds, filling a tall arched niche, with tiny human figures at its feet; on the right, in colour, the same niche empty, its back wall bare and scarred, with pale structures at its foot.

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550 to 620 CE

The Buddhas of Bamiyan

Bamyan, Afghanistan · Asia

A tall rectangular brass plaque, dark brown with age and pierced with nail holes at its edges, photographed against a grey background: a single standing man in high relief faces forward, wearing a tall beaded cap with projecting spikes, a high collar of beads up to his chin, a wrapped skirt with patterned edges and beaded bands at the ankles, holding a long staff; faint engraved leaf and quatrefoil patterns cover the background.

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1500 to 1897

The Benin Bronzes

Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria · Africa