The Body Farm, or the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Facility is a facility located near Knoxville, Tennessee. This facility studies human decomposition that takes place after death.

The facility was founded by anthropologist Dr. William Bass after he found that there weren't any such facilities to study decomposition. The facility is on a wooded plot contained in a fence topped off with razor wire. A number of bodies are laid out in this three acre (12,000 m²) plot, a few miles south of Knoxville, near the University's medical center . The bodies come from different sources. Some bodies are from the medical examiner's office which had laid there unclaimed. Other people choose to donate their bodies to the Body Farm. Over 300 people have done so.

These bodies are situated in a number of ways. Some are left out in the open. Others are buried in shallow graves. Some bodies are entombed in vaults. Some are even left in cars. Scientists then do regular studies to gain an understanding of human decay.

Law enforcement officials and medical examiners have found the work done at the Body Farm to be valuable. This is mainly through helping medical examiners to develop a better idea of what the actual time of death was, known as forensics. The Federal Bureau of Investigation holds a training course at the Body Farm where agents dig up bodies as part of a crime scene simulation.

The Body Farm was the inspiration for a Patricia Cornwell novel of the same name (ISBN 0425147622) and is the subject of the nonfiction Death's Acre by Jon Jefferson and Dr. William Bass (ISBN 0399151346).

External links

• The Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville
• Death's Acre by Jon Jefferson and Dr. William Bass