Christopher Columbus’ remains discovered after more than 500 years DNA analysis confirms

Scientists have solved the 500-year-old mystery surrounding the final resting place of Christopher Columbus.

The team spent 20 years conducting DNA analysis on human bones buried in the Spanish cathedral of Seville. This confirmed with ‘absolute certainty’ that they belonged to the explorer who died in 1506.

Over the past twenty years, they have compared the DNA from the samples with that of relatives and descendants.

Columbus’ body had been moved several times after his death, with some experts claiming he was buried in the Dominican Republic, sparking a hunt to locate the navigator’s remains.

Miguel Lorente, a forensic scientist who led the investigation, said on Thursday: “Today it has been possible to verify it with new technologies, so that the previous partial theory that the remains of Seville belong to Christopher Columbus has been definitively confirmed.”

Many experts believe that the tomb in the cathedral held the body of Columbus for a long time, but it was not until 2003 that Lorente and historian Marcial Castro were allowed to open it and discovered that the previously unknown bones were inside.

At the time, DNA technology was unable to “read” a small amount of genetic material to obtain accurate results.

Researchers used the remains of the explorer’s son Hernando and brother Diego, who are also buried in Seville’s cathedral.

The relative’s bones were also much larger than the fragments found at Columbus’ burial.

Advances in DNA analysis could also reveal whether or not the explorer was Italian, which is also debated within the scientific community.

Some are certain he was born in Genoa, while others have suggested Poland or Spain.

Then there are speculations that the navigator was Scottish, Catalan or Jewish.

Researchers said their findings on Columbus’s origins will be announced Saturday in a documentary titled “Columbus DNA: The true origin” on Spanish national broadcaster TVE.

Lorente, who briefed reporters on the investigation on Thursday, did not reveal the conclusions but said they had confirmed previous theories that the remains in Seville belonged to Columbus.

Research into nationality has been complicated by a number of factors, including the large amount of data. But “the outcome is almost absolutely reliable,” Lorente said.

Columbus set sail from the Spanish port of Palos on August 3, 1492, hoping to find a route to the legendary riches of Asia.

Together with three ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, Columbus and about a hundred men embarked on the journey that took them to the other side of the world – and far from their original destination.

On October 12, 1492, the ships made landfall in what is now the Bahamas and later that month Columbus sighted Cuba and thought it was mainland China.

And two months later the ships came ashore, which Columbus thought might be Japan.

On the second voyage in 1493, Columbus deliberately sailed back to the New World and landed in Puerto Rico, where he enslaved many of the Taino people living on the island – some of whom were sent back to Spain.

Over the next four years, many Spaniards arrived, resulting in the deaths of approximately seven million Taino – 85 percent of the population.

Researchers were given permission in 2003 to open a tomb in a Spanish cathedral, where bone fragments of an unknown human were found. Now the team has confirmed that the remains are Columbus

The arrival of the Europeans also led to a spread of deadly diseases such as smallpox and measles, with many historians claiming that Columbus also brought the first syphilis-like diseases to the Americas.

But a January study found the disease was widespread thousands of years ago.

The first beginnings of a syphilis epidemic were documented in Europe in the late 15th century, leading historians to believe that it was brought to the Americas when Columbus set foot on the continent.

DNA evidence has now shown that treponematosis, an ancient syphilis-like disease, existed in Brazil for more than 2,000 years before the explorer set sail for the New World.

Kerttu Majander, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Basel, said: ‘The fact that the findings represent an endemic type of treponemal diseases, and not sexually transmitted syphilis, still leaves the origin of the sexually transmitted syphilis uncertain.’

The team examined the bones of four people who died thousands of years ago in the coastal region of Santa Catarina in Brazil.

Pathogens found in the remains showed signs of a syphilis-like disease that likely resulted in mouth sores and shin pain.

The study, published in Nature, states that the bones were excavated from the archaeological site of Jabuticabeira II and have been studied since 2016.

Researchers screened 37 of 99 sequencing data samples and found that there were between seven and 133 positive hits for diseases arising from the Treponema family.

Verena Schünemann, co-author of the study, said: ‘While the origins of syphilis still leave room for imagination, at least we now know without a doubt that treponematoses were no strangers to the American inhabitants who lived and died centuries before the continent. was explored by Europeans.