Scientists use DNA analysis to solve Columbus mystery

One of history’s greatest mysteries may soon be resolved by a study aiming to pinpoint the origins of explorer Christopher Columbus through DNA analysis.

Columbus, pictured, died in May 1506 in the Spanish city of Valladolid. Most academics accept that he was born in 1451 in Genoa, but in recent years, new theories have traced his origins to other parts of Spain, while others point to Portugal, Croatia and even Poland.

In 2003, DNA tests established that bones in a tomb in the cathedral of Seville were his, but the investigation went no further, as the technology was then not advanced enough.

Jose Antonio Lorente, a professor of forensic medicine at Granada University, said there had been big improvements in

DNA analysis since then. His team is to analyse genetic material from seven bone fragments and a tooth from Columbus’s son, Hernando, and a dozen bone fragments from his brother, Diego, kept in a vault at the university.

The fragments will be sent to laboratories in Italy, Mexico and the United States. The results are due in October.

Historian Fernando de Prado, a descendant of Columbus, said: ‘‘It seems that he went to lengths to destroy documents to obscure his origins.

‘‘Some say he hid or falsified his origins either because he was a converted Jew or because of legal problems regarding his inheritance.’’

Historians say that although Columbus changed his Italian birth name from Colombo to the Spanish Colon, and worked in Genoa’s sugar trade, little is known about his origins.