– DNA tests may solve mystery of explorer Columbus origin
When schoolchildren turn to the chapter on Christopher Columbus humble origins as the son of a wool-weaver in Genoa, they are not generally told that he might instead have been born out of wedlock to a Portuguese prince. Or that he might have been a Jew whose parents converted to escape the Spanish Inquisition. Or a rebel in the medieval kingdom of Catalonia.
Yet five centuries after he opened the door to the New World, Columbus revisionist biographers have found a new hope for vindication: DNA.
In 2004, a Spanish geneticist, Dr. Jose Lorente, extracted genetic material from a cache of Columbus bones in Seville to settle a dispute about where he was buried. Ever since, he has been beset by amateur historians, government officials and self-styled Columbus relatives of multiple nationalities clamoring for a genetic retelling of the standard textbook tale.
A Genoese Cristoforo Colombo almost certainly did exist. Archives record his birth and early life. But there is little to tie that man to the one who crossed the Atlantic in 1492. Columbus kept books in Catalan and his handwriting has, according to some, a Catalonian flair. He wrote in Castilian. He decorated his letters with a Hebrew cartouche.
Since it seems now that the best bet for deducing Columbus true hometown is to look for a genetic match in places where he might have lived, hundreds of Spaniards, Italians and a few Frenchmen have swabbed their cheeks to supply cells for comparison.
When schoolchildren turn to the chapter on Christopher Columbus humble origins as the son of a wool-weaver in Genoa, they are not generally told that he might instead have been born out of wedlock to a Portuguese prince. Or that he might have been a Jew whose parents converted to escape the Spanish Inquisition. Or a rebel in the medieval kingdom of Catalonia.
Yet five centuries after he opened the door to the New World, Columbus revisionist biographers have found a new hope for vindication: DNA.
In 2004, a Spanish geneticist, Dr. Jose Lorente, extracted genetic material from a cache of Columbus bones in Seville to settle a dispute about where he was buried. Ever since, he has been beset by amateur historians, government officials and self-styled Columbus relatives of multiple nationalities clamoring for a genetic retelling of the standard textbook tale.
A Genoese Cristoforo Colombo almost certainly did exist. Archives record his birth and early life. But there is little to tie that man to the one who crossed the Atlantic in 1492. Columbus kept books in Catalan and his handwriting has, according to some, a Catalonian flair. He wrote in Castilian. He decorated his letters with a Hebrew cartouche.
Since it seems now that the best bet for deducing Columbus true hometown is to look for a genetic match in places where he might have lived, hundreds of Spaniards, Italians and a few Frenchmen have swabbed their cheeks
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to supply cells for comparison.
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