Bodies of Evidence
Case studies
Body Farm
What happens on the 'body farm'?
Most of what is known scientifically about the decomposition of bodies
has been learnt from research at the 'body farm'. At this outdoor laboratory
– properly known as the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology
Facility – scientists study what happens to human bodies after death.
Since it was set up by forensic anthropologist William Bass in 1971,
some 300 corpses have been observed. The bodies, which are either donated
to science or have been left unclaimed after an accident, may be put in
a car boot, left in sun or shade, buried in shallow graves, covered with
brush or submerged in ponds.
Researchers observe the insects that colonise the corpse – for example,
maggots are attracted to wounds, followed by ants. Biochemists analyse
the breakdown of proteins in the organs, looking at how body fats degenerate,
leak out and affect any vegetation in the body's immediate vicinity. Put
together, all these factors give an idea of when and how the person died.
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The Romanovs
Vladimir Lenin
Taung Child
St Clare
The Inuit Women
Witch burial
Barber surgeon
Slave grave
Turin shroud
The disappeared
Medieval coffins
Java Man
Animal mummies
Neanderthals
Hybrid skeleton
Cherchen Man
Body Farm
Mummy medicine
Tooth decay
Maronite mummies
Tooth implant
Polynesians
Andes mummies
Lefthandedness
Ice-Age Footprints
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