A team of Spanish scientists led by forensic expert Miguel Lorente spent 22 years analyzing DNA from Christopher Columbus’s bones. The remains of the famed navigator, who died in 1506, are housed in Seville Cathedral.
The researchers also examined the DNA of Columbus’s close relatives—his son Hernando and his brother Diego. That comparison helped uncover the explorer’s origins, a topic that has sparked heated debate for years.
What Did the Scientists Discover?
Experts from multiple countries have argued for years over whether the remains in the cathedral actually belong to Columbus. It wasn’t until 2003 that Miguel Lorente and historian Marcial Castro received permission to open the tomb and study the bones.
At the time, technology only allowed analysis of very small amounts of genetic material, as the Daily Mail reported. But over the two decades that followed, advances in DNA methods let scientists more accurately determine the identity of the remains.
“The previous theory that the remains in Seville belong to Christopher Columbus has been definitively confirmed,” Mr. Lorente said. Advances in DNA analysis also helped clarify the nationality and origins of the explorer, who led Spain-funded expeditions in the 1490s and opened the door to European conquest of the Americas.
Columbus’s tomb in Seville Cathedral
Scotsman, Catalan, or Jew?
Some researchers argued Columbus was born in Genoa, while others suggested Poland or Spain. He has been proposed as Scottish, Greek, Jewish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Basque.
In a documentary titled “Columbus’s DNA: The True Origins,” recently aired on Spanish television, scientists presented their findings.
The film revealed that Columbus was a Sephardic Jew from Western Europe. In the documentary, Miguel Lorente discussed the DNA analysis of Columbus’s son, Hernando, as reported by CNN. “Both the Y chromosome and the mitochondrial DNA show markers consistent with Jewish ancestry,” the forensic expert said.
About 300,000 Jews lived in Spain before Catholic monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand ordered Jews and Muslims to convert to Catholicism or leave the country. As a result, Sephardic Jews dispersed around the world (the word “Sephard” in Hebrew means “Spain”).
After analyzing 25 potential locations for Columbus’s origins, the team concluded that he was born in Western Europe.
On Diseases Brought to America
The arrival of Europeans in the Americas brought deadly diseases to indigenous populations, such as smallpox and measles. Many historians also argue that Columbus’s crew introduced sexually transmitted infections, including syphilis, to Europe. The first documented outbreak of syphilis in Europe occurred in the late 15th century, which led researchers to speculate that Columbus’s expedition brought the disease from the Americas to Europe.
However, a new study from the University of Basel in Switzerland found that this class of disease was present in the Americas thousands of years before Columbus’s voyage.
Researchers discovered evidence of treponematosis—an ancient disease related to syphilis—in Brazil more than 2,000 years before the navigator set sail in 1492.
Columbus’s legacy is controversial because of how members of his expeditions treated indigenous peoples. In the years after the Spanish arrived in the New World, roughly seven million local inhabitants—about 85 percent of the population—perished.
Columbus died in the Spanish city of Valladolid. According to his will, he wanted to be buried on the island of Hispaniola, now shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. His remains were moved there in 1542, then to Cuba in 1795, and finally to Seville in 1898.
