A team of Spanish scientists led by forensic expert Miguel Lorente analyzed DNA from the remains of Christopher Columbus, which are kept in Seville Cathedral.
Scientists also studied the DNA of Columbus’s close relatives – his son Hernando and his brother Diego. That comparison helped uncover the explorer’s origins, a question long debated by historians.
What did the scientists learn?
Experts from various countries have argued for years about whether the bones in the cathedral actually belong to Columbus. In 2003, Miguel Lorente and historian Marcial Castro were granted permission to open the tomb and examine the remains.
At that time, technology allowed researchers to read only small amounts of genetic material, writes the Daily Mail. Over the next two decades, DNA methods improved, allowing scientists to determine the origin of the remains more accurately.
“So the previous theory that the remains in Seville belong to Christopher Columbus is finally confirmed,” said Lorente. Advances in DNA analysis also helped determine the nationality and origin of the navigator who led Spain-funded expeditions in the 1490s and opened the door to European conquest of the Americas.
The tomb of Columbus in the Cathedral of Seville.
Scottish, Catalan, or Jew?
Scholars have proposed many birthplaces for Christopher Columbus. Some argued he was born in Genoa, while others suggested Poland or Spain. Over the years he has been variously identified as Scottish, Greek, Jewish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Basque.
In the documentary film “Columbus’s DNA: The True Origin,” recently aired on Spanish television, the research team presented their findings.
The scientists concluded that Columbus was a Sephardic Jew from Western Europe. In the film, Lorente discussed the DNA analysis of Columbus’s son, Hernando. “Both the Y chromosome and the mitochondrial DNA show traits consistent with Jewish ancestry,” Lorente said, according to CNN.
About 300,000 Jews lived in Spain before the Catholic monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand ordered Jews and Muslims to convert to Catholicism or leave the country. As a result, Sephardic Jews spread throughout the world (the word “Sephard” in Hebrew means “Spain”).
After analyzing 25 possible locations where Columbus might have originated, the team concluded that he was born in Western Europe.
About diseases brought to America
The arrival of Europeans in the Americas led to the spread of deadly diseases among indigenous peoples, such as smallpox and measles. Many historians also argue that Columbus’s crew introduced venereal diseases, particularly syphilis. The first documented epidemic of syphilis in Europe occurred in the late 15th century, prompting some researchers to suggest the disease reached Europe via members of Columbus’s expedition.
However, a study from the University of Basel in Switzerland found evidence that similar diseases existed in the Americas long before Columbus’s voyages.
Researchers discovered signs of treponematosis (an ancient disease related to syphilis) in Brazil that date back more than 2,000 years before the navigator’s 1492 voyage.
Columbus remains a controversial figure because of how members of his expeditions treated indigenous peoples. Within a few years after the Spaniards’ arrival in the New World, about seven million local inhabitants died – roughly 85 percent of the population.
Columbus died in the Spanish city of Valladolid. In his will he asked to be buried on the island of Hispaniola, now shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. His remains were transported there in 1542, moved to Cuba in 1795, and more than a century later, in 1898, they were transferred to Seville.
