The Tartarian Architecture Question

The “Tartarian” theory, circulating primarily in online communities, proposes that a technologically sophisticated civilisation — referred to as Tartaria — existed globally until the 18th or 19th century and was erased from the historical record. The theory is not accepted by academic historians and is frequently described as pseudohistory.

The Institution does not endorse the Tartarian theory as formulated in popular presentations. The Institution notes that the popular version conflates several distinct and separable claims, some of which have more evidentiary support than others.

What the Institution Does and Does Not Dispute

The Institution does not dispute that 19th-century urban redevelopment projects destroyed or buried significant quantities of earlier architecture. The Institution does not dispute that the historical record of certain periods and regions is incomplete in ways that are not fully explained by the natural loss of evidence. The Institution does not comment on the specific claim of a global coordinated erasure.

The Institution’s archive contains 23 entries documenting architectural features at sites across Europe, Central Asia, and the Americas that have not been satisfactorily explained by reference to the cultures attributed to them. These entries are distributed across the degree system from Open Access to the Third Degree. The Institution does not summarise their collective implications in any publicly available document.