Established by anthropology professor William M. Bass in 1972, the Anthropological Research Facility provides a setting to document postmortem change scientifically. It provides the opportunity to conduct decomposition research under controlled conditions, and it also provides the opportunity to skeletonize remains and add them to the research collection maintained by the Anthropology Department.
This outdoor laboratory enables investigation of parameters, which are crucial in time-since-death estimates, as well as other research. Donated remains make the research possible and provide a modern osteological teaching collection that is the largest and most extensive of its kind in the country. The facility loaned its nickname to Patricia Cornwell’s 1994 novel The Body Farm. The novel incorporates people and activities of the facility.
The installation was originally at the Holston Farm and was moved in 1980 to an isolated area behind the Radiation Safety Building on the edge of UT Medical Center’s grounds—at Bass’s request to have the facility located closer to campus. In 1985 the Medical Center built a parking lot that made the facility far less isolated, which prompted a local cause-oriented activist group, Solutions to Issues of Concern for Knoxvillians (SICK), to demand relocation of the facility. Privacy fences were installed to maintain isolation. In 2011 the William M. Bass Building was completed. It provides laboratory, intake, office, and classroom space adjacent to the outdoor research facility.