Posted on 08/12/2004 8:16:56 AM PDT by blam
Young bones lay Columbus myth to rest
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Wednesday August 11, 2004
The Guardian (UK)
A centuries-old historical row over the whereabouts of the body of Christopher Columbus appeared to have been solved yesterday when scientists in Spain conceded that the corpse buried at Seville's gothic Santa Maria cathedral was not that of the famous explorer. Instead, the bones they studied were probably those of his lesser known son, Diego, who was a small and weedy man, unlike his father.
Christopher Columbus's body, the experts say, almost certainly lies back in the "new world" he sailed to 500 years ago.
The exhumation by Spanish anthropologists appears to have settled a row between Spain and the Dominican Republic, which has contested the claim that Columbus's bones ended up in Seville.
Although DNA tests have not been done, the anthropologists have already concluded that the body in Seville is too young and puny to have belonged to the rugged, hefty sailor who, depending on which version of history you prefer, was either Italian, Spanish or Portuguese.
"This was a man who never developed his musculature and died at around the age of 45," said Marcial Castro, who is leading the investigation. "Columbus was a strong man who was aged between 55 and 60 when he died."
The corpse lying under the Columbus Lighthouse monument in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, appears to be of someone around 60 years old who had taken a lot of physical exercise, he said. "I am convinced that Columbus is buried in the Dominican Republic," Mr Castro added.
Spanish investigators are now seeking permission to open the coffin in Santo Domingo, which was found in 1877 by workmen who discovered a small lead box of bone fragments inscribed "Illustrious and distinguished male, Don Cristóbal Colón".
Columbus's corpse is known to have had several resting spots in the years after he died in relative poverty in the Spanish city of Valladolid in 1506.
His body spent three years in Valladolid before an 18-year rest at a monastery in Seville. It was finally shipped to Santo Domingo, along with Diego's body, and interred in the cathedral. In 1795, when Spain handed Santo Domingo to France, some of the bones were carried to Cuba. These were taken back to Seville when the Spaniards were thrown out of Cuba in 1898.
GGG Ping.
I heard he was buried under the endzone of the football stadium at a Big 10 university in central Ohio.
Gracious. The "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" was as much a traveller in death as he was in life. I imagine he would have got a chuckle out of that.
This kind of reminds me of the Mexican who offered Pancho Villa's skull for sell.
First skull was Pancho Villa as a young boy and the second skull was Pancho Villa as an adult.
No, that's Jimmy Hoffa...
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That's Hoffa...
Grrrrr!
Anybody see the special on Columbus about a week ago on the Discovery Channel?
Who bought them?
Micaehl Jackson or John Kerry?
I'll say it is.
I watched the Discovey Channel special on this about 2 weeks ago. They opened the ossuary in the Seville chapel (with a descendant of Columbus present)and all that was in it was a lot of dust and a few small bone fragments. How they can determine the stature of someone base on this is beyond me, even though I know that forensics is quite sophisticated today.
" I hear he had a mistress named Nina. ;') And another one named Maria"
And when he heard that his wife had found out, he slapped his forehead and said "Santa Maria!"
Columbus is much repected in the Dominican Republic. But who was he really?
http://www.greecetravel.com/history/columbus/
You're thinking about Jimmy Hoffa in Giants Stadium in the Medowlands.
This kind of reminds me of the Mexican who offered Pancho Villa's skull for sell. First skull was Pancho Villa as a young boy and the second skull was Pancho Villa as an adult.
Now wait a minute, the version I heard was set in a bar in Dublin and the skulls were that of Brian Boru.
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