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In
Search of Columbus' Bones
Lidia
Hunter
MADRID, (Tierramérica) - Scientists
from four countries are engaged in the
process of unveiling the true burial
site of the remains of Christopher
Columbus (1451-1506) and believe that
their conclusions, which are some six
months away, will be the last word on
the subject.
”Our verdict will be irrefutable,”
the leader of the expert team
searching for the final resting place
of the man credited with discovering
the Americas told Tierramérica.
The head of the project, José Antonio
Lorente, is also involved in similar
work focusing on victims of the
Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), as well
as the remains of those who
disappeared during the eras of
political violence in Chile, El
Salvador, Peru and Colombia.
Lorente said that when he laid his
hands on the bones of Columbus, he
felt ”thrilled, as well as a sense
of responsibility, something difficult
to explain.”
Identifying the remains -- a bone of
contention between the Dominican
Republic and the southern Spanish city
of Seville -- is ”a great challenge
for science,” he said.
His team of experts from Spain, Italy,
Germany and the United States last
month began DNA analysis on bones
housed in the Seville Cathedral that
are said to be those of Columbus.
”Our conclusion will be
scientifically irrefutable. What
historians will say after that,
however, is another matter,” he
said.
Columbus was born, probably in 1451,
in Genoa, Italy, and died in the
Spanish city of Valladolid in 1506. In
keeping with his wishes, Columbus'
remains, and those of his son
Hernando, were transported in 1544 to
Santo Domingo, the capital of the
Dominican Republic.
When the Spanish colonialists left
that Caribbean island nation in 1795,
they took the remains to nearby Cuba.
In 1898 the bones were transferred to
Spain. But according to the
Dominicans, part of his remains never
left their country.
Anthropological and dental
examinations and even magnetic
resonance imaging form part of the
exhaustive tests that Lorente's group
plans to carry out on the bones.
The researchers will analyse DNA
extracted from bone samples to confirm
whether or not Columbus was a Genoese,
and whether he was the child of
Domenico Columbus and Susana
Fontanarossa or if, as some historians
insist, he was the illegitimate son of
the Castilian prince Carlos de Viana.
The scientists will look at the
mitochondrial gene, which is passed
on, unchanged, from the mother, and
autosomes, which are chromosomes
inherited from both parents.
The results will be compared with
those of close relatives of Columbus,
his brother Diego and his son
Hernando, explained Lorente.
But getting at the truth may not be
easy. One of the greatest obstacles is
the small number of pieces available
for study as well as the fragmentary
state of the Seville samples, says
Miguel Botella, director of the
Anthropology Laboratory at the
University of Granada, in southern
Spain, and a member of Lorente's
group.
With what they have it will be
difficult to establish his height, but
they could determine whether the
remains are Columbus', as well as his
build, his probable age at death, and
the diseases from which he suffered,
said Botella.
The bones in the Columbus mausoleum in
the Dominican Republic will also
undergo similar testing.
Because of the scarcity of bone
material in Seville, ”it is probable
that Columbus' bones are in both
places,” Botella said.
Columbus tried several royal courts in
Europe before he was able to secure
financing for his first trip to the
”East Indies”, from the newly
unified kingdom of Spain.
The celebrated navigator eventually
made four voyages. His first, in 1492,
was followed by three others, in 1493,
1498 and 1502. When he died -- in 1506
in Spain -- he was a broken man,
having been imprisoned and divested of
all of the privileges of an admiral as
well as the viceroyalty of the new
lands.
If the tests prove that Columbus'
remains are currently resting in
Seville, there will likely be a debate
as to whether or not they should be
returned to the Americas, where he had
asked to be buried.
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