The remains of Christopher Columbus buried in a cathedral in Seville, southern Spain, do indeed belong to the famous navigator, a team of scientists from the University of Granada announced this week. Tonight, Spanish public television is to broadcast a documentary in which the authors promise to reveal Columbus’s origins. Spain is celebrating a national holiday today, commemorating the anniversary of 1492, when this navigator in the service of the Spanish monarchy “discovered America”.
A team of scientists from the University of Granada, led by José Antonio Lorente, announced this week that a new examination of the remains using advanced technology, thanks to a DNA comparison, confirmed with “virtually absolute certainty” that the remains belong to Columbus. Lorente added that this confirmed his earlier conclusion from 2005. His team compared DNA from the remains in Seville and from the remains of Columbus’ brother Diego and his son Hernando (also known as Fernando).
Lorente has been researching the authenticity of Columbus’ remains for over twenty years. More than 15 years ago, he discontinued the research, saying that he would wait for more advanced technology. “The technology we had in 2003 was sufficient to analyze the DNA of bones half a century old. But the Columbus case is specific in two ways; firstly, we have only a very small amount of samples and also their quality is not good, they are very damaged,” explained Lorente in in 2021, when he announced the resumption of the examination of Columbus’ remains together with colleagues in Italy, the USA and Mexico.
Columbus died in the Spanish city of Valladolid in 1506. In 1523, his remains were moved to the island of Hispaniola, on which the Dominican Republic and Haiti are today, and where Columbus wished to be buried. But they were transported from the cathedral there in Santo Domingo in 1793, when the island was acquired by France, and reached Havana. When Spain lost Cuba in the war with the USA in 1898, Columbus’ remains were transferred to Seville, Spain.
But the origin of Columbus still remains a mystery. Twenty-five possible origins, eight finalists, but only one is true, said RTVE television in the trailer for today’s documentary called Colón ADN. Su verdadero origen (Columbus DNA. His true origin). In the words of its director Regis Francisco López, he will “rewrite history”. Various Spanish regions, Italy, Sweden, Portugal or Norway claim Columbus. The most frequently stated theory says that he was born in Genoa, Italy.
On his most famous expedition, Columbus set sail in the service of the Spanish monarchy on August 3, 1492, and his goal was to find a new route to Asia. Convinced that he had discovered such a path, he died in 1506. At the same time, Amerigo Vespucci’s Book of the New World was already circulating in Europe before his death.
Columbus brought wealth and power to Spain, but destruction to the natives. Although exact statistics do not exist, it is said that over half of the indigenous population died out in the 16th century. The Indians, as Columbus named them thinking he was in India, succumbed mainly to European diseases, but the new way of life also took its toll.
Columbus is often referred to as the discoverer of America. Far before him, however, the Vikings arrived in the north of America and settled briefly in Newfoundland around the year 1000. However, the year 1492 is considered “the year of the discovery of America”, which was followed by the European colonization of the new continent.
Source: www.tyden.cz
