Wow. I didn’t know that we didn’t know where he was.
Scientists have solved the 500-year-old mystery surrounding Christopher Columbus’ final resting place.
The team spent 20 years performing a DNA analysis on human bones found buried in Spain‘s Seville Cathedral, confirming with ‘absolute certainty’ they belonged to the explorer who died in 1506.
For the past two decades, they have been comparing DNA taken from the samples with that of relatives and descendants.
Columbus’ body had been moved several times following his death, with some experts claiming he had been buried in the Dominican Republic, sparking a hunt to track down the navigator’s remains.
Miguel Lorente, a forensic scientist who led the research, 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 have believed that the tomb inside the cathedral has long held Columbus’ body, but it was not until 2003 when Lorente and historian Marcial Castro were granted permission to open it, finding the previously unknown bones were inside.
We can thank Columbus for bringing diversity to North America.
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