The origins of Christopher Columbus are open to debate. Some 25 localities, mainly in Spain and Italy, claim them. The cards could be redistributed by a new study carried out by the University of Granada over more than twenty years. According to the results revealed Saturday in an RTVE documentary, the explorer famous for having discovered the American continent in 1492 is in reality a Spanish Sephardic Jew. And not a Catholic from Genoa, Italy.
As part of the research, the team of scientists led by forensic medicine professor Miguel Lorente sifted through tiny samples of remains buried in Seville Cathedral, believed to be the final resting place of Christopher Columbus, explains Reuters . They were then compared with those of known descendants.
“We have the DNA of Christopher Columbus, very partial, but sufficient. We also have that of Hernando Colón, his son,” explains Miguel Lorente in the program broadcast on the Spanish national holiday. “Both in Hernando’s Y (male) chromosome and mitochondrial (maternally transmitted) DNA there are traits consistent with a Jewish origin. »
Christopher Columbus may have, at the time, hidden his origins to escape persecution when 300,000 Jews in Spain were forced to convert to Catholicism or leave the country.
“It is impossible to draw definitive conclusions about its exact geographical origin”
Despite these new discoveries, the debate is far from over. The study and methodology were not peer-reviewed and published in a specialized journal, which several experts did not fail to point out. In addition, the elements communicated are quite summary.
“The problem is that the Y chromosome only represents a tiny fraction of our DNA and our ancestry,” emphasizes geneticist Antonio Salas of the Santiago de Compostela Health Research Institute in El Pais.
“The findings are surprising, because there is no Y chromosome that can accurately and exclusively define a Sephardic Jewish origin. Even if all of an individual’s DNA were recovered, it would still be impossible to draw definitive conclusions about its exact geographic origin,” he adds. Professor José Antonio Lorente from the University of Granada promises to reveal more data by the end of November.
