University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility

• DATE: Established in 1972
• IDENTIFICATION: Facility at which forensic anthropologists conduct research on the decomposition of human remains and the identification of skeletal or badly decomposed bodies.

SIGNIFICANCE: The Anthropological Research Facility at the University of Tennessee provides human identification services and death investigation training to arson investigators, county medical examiners, and various federal, state, and local law-enforcement agencies.

Dr. William M. Bass is credited with establishing the University of Tennessee’s Anthropological Research Facility in 1972. Soon after Bass began working at the University of Tennessee in 1971, the state medical examiner asked him to do some consulting work on several death investigations. Although Bass had been trained as a forensic anthropologist, he had limited experience with cases involving human decomposition. In addition, little research had been conducted to document the stages of human decomposition. As a result, Bass and the faculty of the Anthropology Department at the University of Tennessee created the Anthropological Research Facility, now commonly known as the Body Farm, so that forensic anthropologists could study postmortem decomposition of human remains.

The Body Farm is located on a three-acre tract of land close to the university’s Knoxville campus. It serves as a primary research facility for doctoral students in forensic sciences and as a training site for crime scene investigators, law enforcement officers, morticians, dental experts, emergency medical personnel, decontamination experts, and anthropologists. The Body Donation Program at the University of Tennessee’s Forensic Anthropology Center manages this process of training and research. Research at the Body Farm has helped forensic anthropologists to document the decomposition of the human body in relation to weather, water, indoor versus outdoor settings, clothing, insects, small mammals, and other variables. Some examples of research work include finding options to extend the amount of time after death during which biometric markers can be effectively used to identify individuals and the efficiency of compost and mulch in improving the mummified remains’ decomposition rate.   

The University of Tennessee also houses the nation’s largest modern bone collection, the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection. Data on the skeletal remains in the collection are entered into the University of Tennessee’s forensic anthropology Data Bank. This database is the primary tool that forensic anthropologists across the United States use to determine age, sex, stature, ancestry, and other unique characteristics from skeletal remains.

The Forensic Anthropology Center inspired the formation of the National Forensic Academy (NFA), one of the leading law-enforcement investigation training centers in the United States. The NFA offers an intensive ten-week training program designed to educate law-enforcement agents in evidence identification, collection, and preservation. The primary goal of the NFA is to prepare law-enforcement officers to recognize crucial components of crime scenes and improve the process of evidence recovery and submission.

Bibliography

Bass, Bill, and Jon Jefferson. Beyond the Body Farm: A Legendary Bone Detective Explores Murders, Mysteries, and the Revolution in Forensic Science. William Morrow, 2007.

Bass, Bill, and Jon Jefferson. Death’s Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm Where the Dead Do Tell Tales. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2003.

“Forensic Anthropology Center.” Forensic Anthropology Center, 2024, fac.utk.edu/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2025.

“Forensic Anthropology Research Facility.” Forensic Anthropology Center, 2024, www.txst.edu/anthropology/facts/labs/farf.html. Accessed 19 Aug. 2024.

Hallcox, Jarrett, and Amy Welch. Bodies We’ve Buried: Inside the National Forensic Academy, the World’s Top CSI Training School. Berkley Books, 2006.

“Highlighting Significant NIJ Forensic Science Investments: The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Site Visit.” National Institute of Justice, US Department of Justice, 13 Feb. 2024, nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/highlighting-significant-nij-forensic-science-investments-university-tennessee. Accessed 5 Dec. 2025.