University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility
| University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1971 |
| Parent institution | Forensic Anthropology Center |
| Academic affiliation | University of Tennessee |
| Location | Knoxville, Tennessee, United States |
| Director | Dr. Dawnie Wolfe Steadman, DABFA |
| Website | fac.utk.edu |
The University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility, better known as the Body Farm and sometimes seen as the Forensic Anthropology Facility, was started in late 1971 by anthropologist William M. Bass as a facility for study of the decomposition of human remains. It is located a few miles from downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, behind the University of Tennessee Medical Center.
It consists of a 2.5-acre (10,000 m2) wooded plot, surrounded by a razor wire fence. Bodies are placed in different settings throughout the facility and left to decompose. The bodies are exposed in a number of ways in order to provide insights into decomposition under varying conditions. The Facility has expanded from just 20 exposed bodies in 2003 to around 150 in 2007.
The Anthropological Research Facility, the first body farm created, was founded by Bass to generate information about what a corpse experiences when exposed to various experimental conditions. On this farm, human corpses yield to the elements of nature in many re-enacted scenes such as a car accident unseen for days, or a murder victim buried in a shallow grave. Prior to the creation of this institution, no advances had been made in the study of long-term body decomposition since the days of Song Ci's in 13th century China. Many advances have been made about how to determine postmortem interval due to the Body Farm. During the 1970s, donated and unclaimed bodies were macerated at an abandoned farm owned by the university. During the early 1980s, the "body farm" began with one body, a small plot of land, and a novel idea. By that time, Bass had been in the position of head of the anthropology department at the University of Tennessee for a little over a decade, and had been appointed as the first state forensic anthropologist of Tennessee. As the state's forensic anthropologist, Bass was the official called on to determine cause and time of death. This first body was part of an actual crime investigation in which Bass was needed to determine cause of death, and it was instrumental in helping Bass realize the importance of needing a place to study and observe postmortem events.
In the early 1980s, Bass began building his facility with a small group of students. His initial institution consisted of a fenced-off, 256-square-foot (23.8 m2) slab of concrete with a small, windowless shed on top, where tools and surgical instruments would be stored. A front porch measuring 160 square feet (15 m2) was reserved as a spot to lay bodies out for decomposition studies. In the summer of 1981, Bass finally got the chance to use this facility with his first donated research subject: a 73-year-old man who had died of emphysema and heart disease. Labeled "1-81" for confidentiality, Bass' first research subject provided information on the four stages that occur during the decomposition of a human body. Bass uses this naming convention, the designated number of the body and the year it was obtained, specifically for donated research subjects. Bass uses the reverse convention, "year-number", for the real world cases he works.
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