Their job is to watch bodies decompose: what is a "corpse farm" and why are they now being discovered all over the world (8 photos)

People unfamiliar with medicine, forensics, and murder investigations are generally convinced that determining the time of death is a piece of cake. After all, in most detective series, the medical examiner can tell when and even what time a person died almost immediately after looking at a corpse.





However, in reality, things are somewhat more complicated. Accuracy largely depends on how long ago the cardiac arrest occurred. The older the body, the more factors must be taken into account. This means that determining not just the time, but even the date, and in special cases, the year, is only possible approximately.

This, naturally, led to errors and complicated crime investigations. And sometimes it was downright misleading. This is why the controversial, albeit useful, phenomenon of "body farms" emerged.

An Error That Pointed to a Gap in Knowledge

For example, in 1977, a grave was discovered in the United States at the site of the Battle of Nashville, which took place during the Civil War. It contained a body that, by all indications, could have belonged to a participant in the battle. But there was a catch: the remains were remarkably well preserved, and instead of bare bones, the grave contained a corpse with soft tissue.



Naturally, the police concluded that a cunning criminal had decided to plant their murdered contemporary in the area, hoping that after decomposition, he would be mistaken for the deceased soldier.

However, to confirm this, law enforcement officials turned to William Bass, who at the time was the head of the anthropology department at the University of Tennessee.

At first, he also concluded that the body was "fresh," and only after analyzing the teeth did he realize that the deceased had indeed lived more than a hundred years earlier. The cast-iron coffin, which kept air out, allowed his remains to be so well preserved.

This incident prompted Bass to realize the catastrophic lack of knowledge in this field. So he purchased a small plot of land near Knoxville and, with his students, began observing the decomposition of corpses under various conditions. His "test subjects" were the bodies of people bequeathed to the university.





Thus, in the early 1980s, the world's first "body farm" was established. This facility simulates various conditions for the placement of deceased bodies. The soil composition, humidity, and lighting levels are varied, and the subjects are covered with various materials and even placed in water.

All changes that occur are carefully cataloged, revealing how each factor influences the changes occurring in a dead person.

Scientists are particularly interested in the necrobiome—the community of various microorganisms that participate in the decomposition process. After all, it is through these microorganisms that the postmortem interval—the time elapsed since cardiac arrest—can be determined.

Not-so-legal and not-so-pleasant research

Over time, other similar farms emerged in the United States, located in different parts of the country to recreate climate conditions unlike any previous ones. Eight such facilities have already opened in the United States.



The first appeared in Tennessee in 1981, then in Northern Carolina in 2006. Two more were later discovered in Texas, Illinois, Colorado, Florida, and the last one was created in Northern Virginia in 2023.

"Each specific location has its own atmospheric conditions, air temperature, rain temperature, animals, and biological rhythms, so this (the decomposition process – Ed.) needs to be studied in different regions," explained forensic expert, blogger, and author of the book "Autopsy Will Reveal" Alexei Reshetun to RBC.

For the same reason, a "body farm" opened in Australia in 2016. After all, the work of American colleagues was not always useful to experts in that region. Two years later, a similar "research lab" opened in Canada. In the coming years, "body farms" are planned for the UK and India.

However, despite the obvious benefits of this research, opening such facilities is a very complex matter. Firstly, many countries prohibit such research by law.



Secondly, the socio-ethical issue plays a significant role. Many people, even non-religious ones, are unwilling to accept the idea that the deceased are not laid to rest, but rather put on display, so to speak, for an experiment. This is even more true for the religious and superstitious among us.

And thirdly, there's the difficulty of finding a suitable location. After all, the process of decomposition itself is far from pleasant. And not just visually. Immediately after the heart stops, cells begin to disintegrate and putrefy.

Then, bacterial activity leads to the release of hydrogen sulfide, methane, and carbon dioxide. The mixture of these substances creates a very specific and recognizable aroma—the odor of death. In the next stage, the body swells greatly, the skin becomes thinner and turns yellow. This attracts insects, which lay their eggs on the deceased.

After three days, the remains shrink, the skin ruptures, and the corpse oozes a nitrogen-rich fluid. This causes nearby plants to die, but a year later, the flora will flourish. Within a few weeks, after the loss of fluid, nothing remains of the flesh.



No one would want to live next to a place containing not one, but dozens of such decomposing bodies. This would result in a constant unpleasant odor, a large number of insects, changes to the environment, and contamination of the soil and nearby bodies of water.

Dissections for fun and a book unknown to Europeans

"Corpse farms" are a 20th-century invention. But even before then, human bodies after death were of scientific interest. Primarily, naturally, among physicians.

To study the internal structure of humans, corpses began to be dissected as early as antiquity. However, with the advent of the Middle Ages and the spread of Christianity, such research was banned. It was only in 1315, six centuries later, that the first documented autopsy of a dead person since antiquity was performed.



However, anatomical theaters soon became popular in Europe. Instead of stage performances, professional doctors performed dissections of human bodies in front of the audience. This way, scientists learned about human anatomy, taught their students, and entertained the public at the same time.

This pastime became so popular that separate buildings for these theaters began to be erected in various cities. Some of these structures still survive.

But those scientific and other researches focused specifically on the human anatomy. What happens to the body of the deceased, how, and why, was not studied. At least not in the West.

In China, however, the scholar and official Song Qi conducted research and wrote a work, "Collection of Records for the Exoneration of Unjust Accusations," as early as the late 1240s.



He provided a detailed description of the structure of the human body, the functions of individual organs and bones, the external signs of death, the main stages of decomposition, and even explained how to distinguish between a wound inflicted during life and one inflicted after death.

This book was periodically edited and was quite popular in the countries of Indochina.

Europeans only learned of this work in the 19th century. It was first published in English in 1855.

At this time, pathological anatomy, the study of pathological processes and diseases arising in cells and tissues, began to actively develop in both the Old and New Worlds. Microscopic examination is used for this purpose. Soon pathological anatomy became an independent discipline in medicine.