The secret of origin Columba helped discover genetic analysis.
URA-Inform reports this with reference to Reuters.
Spanish scientists have established that the navigator and discoverer of America Christopher Columbus was a Sephardic Jew from Western Europe. Many historians have questioned the traditional theory that Columbus came from Genoa, Italy. There have also been versions that he belonged to the family of Spanish Jews, Greeks, Basques, Portuguese or British.
To solve the mystery, researchers conducted an investigation that lasted 22 years. It was led by forensic expert Miguel Lorente. Scientists examined tiny samples of remains buried in the Seville Cathedral, which Spanish authorities call the burial place of Columbus.
“We have the DNA of Christopher Columbus, very partial, but sufficient. We have the DNA of Hernando Colon, his son. Both the Y chromosome (male) and the mitochondrial DNA (transmitted by the mother) of Hernando have features compatible with Jewish origins,” Lorente emphasized.
Having studied 25 possible birthplaces of the famous navigator, Lorente said that Columbus was born in Western Europe. The study also confirmed that the remains in the Seville Cathedral belonged to Columbus.
“The study of Columbus's origins was complicated by a number of factors, including the large amount of data, but the result is almost completely reliable,” Lorente added.
It is noted that before the Catholic monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand ordered Jews and Muslims to convert to Catholicism or leave the country, there were about 300,000 Jews living in Spain. Many of them settled throughout the world. At the same time, the word “Sephardic” comes from “Sepharad”, which is the Hebrew word for Spain.
It is worth noting that the famous navigator died in the city of Valladolid, Spain, in 1506. However, he asked to be buried on the island of Hispaniola, which is now shared between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It is known that Columbus's remains were transported there in 1542, and in 1795 they were reburied in Cuba. Thus, already in 1898 his remains were buried in Seville, Spain.
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