Lost Libraries: The beginning
INTRODUCTION
The Lost Libraries project is our effort to reconstruct humanity’s greatest vanished collections of knowledge, both physically and digitally. From the Library of Alexandria to Nalanda University, the Mayan Codices, and others, entire archives of science, philosophy, and culture were erased by conquest, fire, or neglect.
By blending research with builds, we create a walk-through experience of both presence and absence. Each physical shelf is a scannable QR structure that links to a digital catalogue showing what survives, what was lost, and — where appropriate — clearly marked speculative AI echoes. Our aim is resilience: to preserve cultural memory, ensure attribution, and make these stories accessible again in ways that endure.
Key themes
Reconstruction & Preservation — anchoring vanished archives in physical and digital form.
Transparency of Loss — showing not just what survived, but also the silences left behind.
Accessible Scholarship — linking directly to trusted archives (Smithsonian, UNESCO, Internet Archive).
Speculative Echoes — optional AI reconstructions, clearly framed as possibilities, not replacements.
Method
Research [VAL]: Source surviving texts, build bibliographies of attested losses, and write summaries per field.
Design [ARC]: 3D-print modular shelves where “book spines” form QR blocks. Prototype and scale into installations.
Digital Framework [VAL]: Develop standardised shelf landing pages — survivors, lost, speculative echoes — with long-term mirrors and backups.
Integration [ARC + VAL]: Shape the visitor journey — approach, scan, explore — balancing spectacle with clarity.
Principle
We don’t chase spectacle for its own sake. The purpose of Lost Libraries is to make absence visible, to restore presence where we can, and to hand back cultural memory in forms that endure. Logic, context, and accountability anchor every shelf.
Indiana Jones & the Lost Libraries
The Lost Libraries project didn’t start as a neat, mapped plan. It began with a question: what if we rebuilt the Library of Alexandria? That spark turned into a cascade. If we could 3D print shelves shaped as QR codes, could we make a library that people could actually walk through, scan, and access the knowledge that survived? And more importantly — could we make the loss visible too?
From there, the idea widened: Alexandria was not alone. Nalanda, the Mayan Codices, the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, Sarajevo’s National Library — history is littered with knowledge vaults that went up in flames.
That was the moment Valehart decided: we build the lost libraries.
This felt very Indiana Jones so we named our project after the fictional archaeologist and professor.
Mapping Our Layout
The first question was how. We split the project into two lanes:
Valehart [VAL]: research, sourcing, cataloguing. Finding what’s left in Smithsonian, UNESCO, and open archives. Documenting what’s gone.
Arcanium [ARC]: design, print, build. Turning those lists into physical shelves where QR “books” lead to curated pages.
Alexandria became our pilot. We looked at Strabo’s notes on the Mouseion, later accounts of the Serapeum “daughter library,” and even speculative reconstructions in games like Assassin’s Creed Origins. From that came a rough skeleton: reading halls, scroll stores, courtyards, annexes. Each space translates into a shelf. Each shelf becomes a QR.
Nerds come in flavours
Researching Alexandria exposed the biggest problem: there is no surviving floor plan, and no catalogue of what was truly lost. Most of what we “know” is fragments, inference, or myth — stitched from centuries of neglect and repeated sackings.
The irony is that gamers have built better versions of the Library than historians. Games like Assassin’s Creed Origins or Unreal Engine fan projects offer full 3D walk-throughs with plausible layouts, lighting, and atmosphere. Meanwhile, academic sources stay cautious, reluctant to commit to any reconstruction without proof. That means if you want to see Alexandria, you turn to digital artists and developers, not archaeologists.
We debated how to handle this gap. Should our shelves only reflect what is certain? Should we leave empty space where there’s no evidence? Should AI attempt to echo lost works? The compromise is clarity: every shelf marks Survives, Lost, and, if included, Speculative Echoes — always labelled. Visitors see both presence and absence, without confusion.
Principle
We can’t resurrect what was burned. But we can build a system that won’t burn again.
The principle is permanence through duality: the physical permanence of shelves you can touch, and the digital permanence of archives mirrored and distributed. Logic, transparency, and attribution are the spine of the work.
Wrap-Up
So we start with Alexandria. The first shelves will be Medicine, Philosophy, and Astronomy — sections with enough surviving texts to stock, but with gaps large enough to feel the loss. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina of 2002 may be the symbolic successor, but ours is different: it’s a living reconstruction of both memory and erasure.
This is only the first build. More libraries will follow. Nalanda, Mayan Codices, Baghdad’s House of Wisdom — each will be printed, scanned, and made accessible. The work is ongoing, and the next post will cover how the first Alexandria shelves come off the printer.
