Bodies Under Neyland

#29
#29
Do students still live under the stadium? I had a friend in Atlanta that lived there back "in the day". Said they had big rats and there was a guy who catch and keep them as pets. I knew a guy who lived in Reese and he kept a rattlesnake.
 
#30
#30
I don't know what their repatriation status has been subsequent to completion of my graduate study in Anthropology during the 1990s, but significant collections of Arikara skeletal remains, which were acquired in the course of archaeological excavations, also were then stored in the Anthropology Dept., which was, at that time, located in Neyland Stadium.

Do you happen to know how the Arikara bones ended up here? I know they were native to the Dakota territories and some were scouts for Custer. The westerners at that time I believe refered to them as the Ree. I have know there were Arikara bones but never heard how we acquired them. I believe they were fierce enemies of the Sioux and were driven from their lands by them.
 
#36
#36
Doing this for the newbs (they have short attention spans). A body farm is a research facility where decomposition can be studied in a variety of settings. The initial one was conceived by anthropologist William M. Bass in 1987 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee, where Bass was interested in studying the decomposition of a human corpse from the time of death to the time of decay.[1][2] The aim was to gain a better understanding of the decomposition process, permitting the development of techniques for extracting information such as the timing and circumstances of death from human remains. Body farm research is of particular interest in forensic anthropology and related disciplines, and has applications in the fields of law enforcement and forensic science.
 
#39
#39
Do you happen to know how the Arikara bones ended up here? I know they were native to the Dakota territories and some were scouts for Custer. The westerners at that time I believe refered to them as the Ree. I have know there were Arikara bones but never heard how we acquired them. I believe they were fierce enemies of the Sioux and were driven from their lands by them.


Dr. Bass taught at the University of Kansas and, if memory serves me correctly, Nebraska prior to becoming department head of Anthropology at UT. The Arikara collections would have been acquired during archaeological excavations conducted during that earlier tenure.

The Arikara were the target of the first military action taken by U.S. military forces against any Plains tribe during the Leavenworth Expedition in 1823. Like the Mandan and Hidatsa, they suffered severe depopulation as a result of the smallpox epidemic of 1837-1838, which facilitated Lakota westward expansion. And, yes, the Arikara were commonly referred to as Rees during the 19th century.
 
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#40
#40
Like I have always said, we kept Fulmer around so long because he “knew where the bodies were buried” 😉
 
#42
#42
I've see this mentioned on here a few times so I thought I'd give a little added history that few are aware of.

We all know the famous line by Kathy Bates in the Blind Side regarding bodies buried under the stadium. That was a reference to the fact that during that time the boxes of bones from the Body Farm that had been decayed and cleaned were stored in cardboard boxes in offices in Neyland. That is no longer the case. In 2017 all of the bones were removed from Neyland and moved to the new Strong Hall. In fact, several times a year they are called on to remove a box of bones so famiies can come visit the remains of their loved ones who generously donated their bodies to science.

That is not where the story originated.

In 1919 construction for what is now Ayers Hall was begun. Shortly after construction began, Brown Ayers, the university president died. His successor began a campaign to have the new administrative building to be named after Ayers.

Before that construction began, because the original building was much smaller, approximately 6 feet had to be removed from the top of The HIll. Roughly 150,000 cubic feet had to be reomved and displaced. Its landing place was the area where Shields Watkins Field and the bleachers along side was also under construction. During the excavation process, on the NW section of the HIll, 6 sets of human remains were found. The bodies were generally considered to be that of 6 Union soldiers who died during the battle of Knoxville. With forensic archeology not being what it is today, little more was done. The assumption was made, however, that there may have been bones of other bodies caught up in the excavations and dumped on the field without anyone knowing it. Without doubt there were fragments of bones and pieces that were not thoroughly searched seeing it was 1919. Some of that would doubtless remain to this day.

Thus began the story that there were bodies buried under Neyland. That assumption, at least to some small degree, is no doubt entirely accurate.

There you have it. The rest of the story.
They find this guy yet?
EA6DE57D-5745-4136-9027-B952CA56D99C.jpeg
 
#43
#43
A little off topic but somewhat related, but I seem to remember going through an underground tunnel that went from the basement of a building on Gay street to a service shaft under Neyland, or near it. Does anybody else remember that? Of course I am old and have lost a few brain cells over the years.
 
#45
#45
A little off topic but somewhat related, but I seem to remember going through an underground tunnel that went from the basement of a building on Gay street to a service shaft under Neyland, or near it. Does anybody else remember that? Of course I am old and have lost a few brain cells over the years.
He actually eludes to this in one of his fiction books.
 
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#47
#47
I've see this mentioned on here a few times so I thought I'd give a little added history that few are aware of.

We all know the famous line by Kathy Bates in the Blind Side regarding bodies buried under the stadium. That was a reference to the fact that during that time the boxes of bones from the Body Farm that had been decayed and cleaned were stored in cardboard boxes in offices in Neyland. That is no longer the case. In 2017 all of the bones were removed from Neyland and moved to the new Strong Hall. In fact, several times a year they are called on to remove a box of bones so famiies can come visit the remains of their loved ones who generously donated their bodies to science.

That is not where the story originated.

In 1919 construction for what is now Ayers Hall was begun. Shortly after construction began, Brown Ayers, the university president died. His successor began a campaign to have the new administrative building to be named after Ayers.

Before that construction began, because the original building was much smaller, approximately 6 feet had to be removed from the top of The HIll. Roughly 150,000 cubic feet had to be reomved and displaced. Its landing place was the area where Shields Watkins Field and the bleachers along side was also under construction. During the excavation process, on the NW section of the HIll, 6 sets of human remains were found. The bodies were generally considered to be that of 6 Union soldiers who died during the battle of Knoxville. With forensic archeology not being what it is today, little more was done. The assumption was made, however, that there may have been bones of other bodies caught up in the excavations and dumped on the field without anyone knowing it. Without doubt there were fragments of bones and pieces that were not thoroughly searched seeing it was 1919. Some of that would doubtless remain to this day.

Thus began the story that there were bodies buried under Neyland. That assumption, at least to some small degree, is no doubt entirely accurate.

There you have it. The rest of the story.

With that said, Let's go "Bone" Ole Miss this Saturday.
 
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#48
#48
I wouldn’t mind the spirits of future slayed Florida and Alabama teams to wonder aimlessly about Neyland on dark, quiet nights.
 
#49
#49
I wouldn’t doubt for one minute that there are bodies under the stadium. I also had the pleasure of having Dr. Bass for 3 classes, one of the best professors I ever had. He was extremely tough, handing back tests, in score order to us! He had some amazing stories and I will never forget a torso found on Cherokee Trail that we, as a class, semi helped him identify.
 
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#50
#50
In 1899, during the building of Barbara Blount Hall, eight skeletons of Union soldiers were discovered. The remains were transferred to the National Cemetery in Knoxville to marked, but unidentified, graves. An additional six skeletons were found just west of Barbara Blount Hall, below the driveway, in 1919 during excavation for steam pipes to heat Ayres Hall. While the remains could not be identified, they were believed also to be those of Union soldiers killed during the Battle of Knoxville. The remains were reinterred in the National Cemetery.
Graves on Campus - Volopedia

These "Historians obviously have a bone to pick with UT!

All these skeletons are probably a direct result of early Sicilian immigrants who settled in Knoxville.

Ray Liotta laughing in Goodfellas - Bing video
 

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