Draft:Haemotaphonomy

Haemotaphonomy (etymologically coming from the Greek haima for blood, taphos for burial, and nomos for law) is a scientific discipline that studies the morphology of blood cells in blood stains deposited on different media. This discipline is of especial interest to forensics and archaeology. It has also been used to study blood residues on fragments of medieval manuscripts​ and on the Shroud of Turin. Haemotaphonomy should not be confused with bloodstain pattern analysis .

SEM micrograph of a human bloodstain. Pseudo-colored image using software coupled with the microscope, in order to improve the realistic appearance of the stain. The bar corresponds to 10 micrometers .

This term was proposed in 1992, inspired by the word "taphonomy" introduced in palaeontology in 1940 by Ivan Yefremov. Since the focus of haemotaphonomy is the morphology of blood cells when blood is in the form of a stain, its subjects of study are any specimens stained with blood. The study method of haemotaphonomy is the analysis of images obtained through a scanning electron microscope (SEM). When a very high level of detail of the bloodstain surface is not required, confocal microscopy is a practical alternative to an SEM.

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• Forensic science