Cheating the decomposers
Bodies decompose through the feeding activities of a variety of organisms.
The body will be preserved if:
- organisms can be excluded
- the body is made unpalatable
- the environment is made too hostile for the decomposer organisms
Upper torso of a human after one year's burial. The body had been buried 1.2 m below the gound without a coffin.
Human hand exhumed after one month 'burial'. The body had been buried 30cm below the ground without a coffin. Photos courtesy of Professor W. Bass and Dr W. Rodriguez III.
Insects
Insects can be excluded from a body by deep burial, protective wrapping and sealed crypts. If insects can be excluded, a body will decompose quite slowly, because maggots are the most voracious flesh feeders.
Although an exposed human body in optimum conditions can be reduced to bone in 10 days, a body that is buried 1.2 m under the ground retains most of its tissue for a year. However, the larvae of some blowflies and flesh flies, can easily locate and burrow down to bodies buried at 0.3 m. Adult coffin flies can burrow 0.5 m into the ground in four days.
If insects are excluded and the body decays slowly, other chemical reactions take place. Grave wax (adipocere) accumulates on the surface of a buried body if fatty deposits are permitted to break down slowly.
Bacteria
Bacteria can never be excluded because they are present in the intestine before death. However, the environment can be made unsuitable for bacterial activity by rapid drying of a body (mummification) or the introduction of bactericides (embalming). Similarly, freezing of bodies (cryonics) will prevent decay.
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Copyright © Australian Museum 2003
