Posted on 03/11/2006 11:30:40 AM PST by blam
Columbus mystery nearly solved 500 years after death
By Phil Stewart
Fri Mar 10, 11:30 AM ET
ROME (Reuters) - Nearly 500 years after the death of Christopher Columbus, a team of genetic researchers are using DNA to solve two nagging mysteries: Where was the explorer really born? And where the devil are his bones?
Debate about origins and final resting place of Columbus has raged for over a century, with historians questioning the traditional theory that he hails from Genoa, Italy. Some say he was a Spanish Jew, a Greek, a Basque or Portuguese.
Even the location of his remains is the subject of controversy. The Dominican Republic and Spain both stake claims as the final resting place of Columbus, who died in May, 1506.
The Spanish-led research team, which includes Italians, Americans and Germans, sampled DNA from the known remains from Columbus' brother and son, and then compared them to fragments attributed to Columbus in Seville.
Although the official announcement is expected later this year, Italian researchers say they are confident based on the evidence gathered so far that Columbus' supposed remains in Seville are likely authentic.
"We have already started all of the analyses on a molecular level and we have good indications that the remains in Seville are effectively those of Christopher," said Olga Rickards, head of the team at Rome's Tor Vergata University laboratory.
If confirmed, it could lay to rest a dispute dating back to 1877, when Dominican workers found a lead casket buried behind the altar in Santo Domingo's cathedral containing a collection of bone fragments the country says belong to Columbus.
The bones should have left the island for Cuba in 1795 and then been sent along Spain a century later.
But the casket was inscribed with the words "Illustrious and distinguished male, Don Cristobal Colon" - the Spanish rendering of Christopher Columbus.
"Nobody knows (about the Dominican remains) ... because they haven't yet allowed DNA analysis," Rickards told Reuters.
COTTON SWABS FOR COLOMBO
Little is known about the early life of Columbus, the reputed son of a weaver in Genoa who would later change the world by accidentally stumbling upon the Americas in 1492.
With so many different theories about his origin, the DNA researchers hope to settle the matter once and for all by obtaining genetic samples from Europeans with the name Columbus.
In Italy, the researchers sent letters to modern-day "Colombo" men asking them to use cotton swabs to sample saliva from inside their mouths.
"We sent out 250 letters ... and we have already received 16 positive responses," Rickards told Reuters.
The Spanish had sampled less than 150 people, she said.
"If we're lucky, we might have a result by May, which is the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' death," she said.
Genoa's mayor, Giuseppe Pericu, joked to a newspaper that Columbus would wind up being "Genovese" -- one way or another.
"If it turns out that Columbus wasn't Genovese, we'll make him an honorary citizen," he said.
Columbus' father's name was Domenico, hence the name Santo Domingo for the city established on Hispaniola, and subsequently the name Dominican Republic...if Columbus' father had been a Pasquale it would be the Paschal Republic.
If Columbus had never sailed, the New World would have been rediscovered in 1500 by Europeans, by Pedro Cabral (who hit Brazil while trying to sail round Africa).
Thank you.
Every little bit helps.
Go to your local library and search the Interlibrary loan system for books and materials on the scientific subjects in which you're interested. It's free (as long as you get the items back on time, of course). Somewhere in the many libraries that make up your city's library system, you'll find sufficient material.
How to learn about molecular biology , genetics, unraveling human DNA, etc. I am currently reading 3 library books that might interest you:
1)"Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo," Sean B. Carroll, 2005. This book plunges right into the important new subject of evolutionary developmental biology (Evo Devo). It describes the details of how the basic template for ALL bilateral creatures was established over one half billion years ago, and how it has been modified to produce all subsequent bilateral creatures. Chapter titles include: Animal Architecture, Modern Forms, Ancient Designs; Making Babies: 25,000 Genes, Some Assembly Required; The Big Bang of Animal Evolution; A Beautiful Mind: The Making of Homo sapiens. I started to read the second book but decided this one should come first.
2) "The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution," Richard Dawkins, 2004. This book starts with humans and then goes back through 40 steps showing where we diverged from each of our common ancestors, giving the time period when this probably occurred. For those who are upset that we and apes had a common ancestor, wait til they find out that we and bacteria had a common ancestor. An excellent book for understanding the tree (or bush) of life
3) "Darwin's Chost: The Origin of Species Updated," Steve Jones,2000. This book puts Darwin's work in modern scientific perspective. It also include some of Darwin's chapter summaries. Great book for arguing with those who would use 150 year old science to po po evolution.
I hope you find this helpful, and if you do I wouldn't mind hearing from you.
I mistyped the first book it should be "Darwin's Ghost"
I recently read a book about the Gulf Stream. Apparently Columbus knew about the equatorial current that flows away from Spain to the Azores and then across the Atlantic before hooking up with the Gulf Stream. Wherever he traveled he looked at old maps, spoke with experienced seamen and picked as many brains as possible. He went to as many coastal ports on the extreme west of Europe as he could, even in the British Isles, where he saw seeds and vegetation that had been washed there from the New World.
He didn't accidently discover America, he "knew" there was something there all the time. He just had the name wrong.
Jews that converted out of fear for the inquisition often
took on an overly christian sounding name inorder to 'apease' the church.
So it could be true. Although i saw a documentary suggesting that Columbus hid his past as he was from Catalonia, which would not make him popular in Spain.
(Despite Catalonia now officially part of Spain)
http://www.barcelonareporter.com/index.php/news/comments/3798/
From Discovery Channel: ‘Spanish Saliva May Reveal Real Columbus’ | “Hundreds of saliva samples may reveal the disputed origins of Christopher Columbus, according to a genetic investigation aimed at finding possible distant descendants of the admiral's family.
A team of geneticists, led by José Antonio Lorente Acosta from the University of Granada, has begun to collect samples from Spanish men sharing the surname Colón (Columbus) in the effort to find a common ancestor who may be the link with the man credited for discovering the New World in 1492.
Columbus is widely thought to have been born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy, the son of wool trader Domenico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa.
Other theories, however, argue that the explorer was born in Spain, his real name being Cristóbal Colón.
Various versions of the story have Columbus as a pirate born in Catalonia, a Catalan Jew who fled to Genoa to hide from the Spanish Inquisition, and the illegitimate son, born in Majorca, of Spain's prince of Viana.
Already 300 Spanish volunteers have agreed to take part in the genetic study. The search will be conducted in Catalonia, Majorca and Valencia; samples will be also taken in Genoa.
The DNA of hundreds of men sharing Columbus' surname will be then compared to DNA from the bones of Hernando - Columbus' son through an extramarital affair - whose identity is certain.
"If we find a chromosome (which males inherit through the paternal line) we could say they were related," Acosta told reporters.
It will not be an easy task: in Catalonia alone, there are about 2,000 Colóns in the electoral register.”
I think using DNA, microbiology and genetic engineering in the evolution-creation catfight is a wate of time. It bores me.
Yes, whichever side I embrace is irrelevant, as is anyone else's faith, whatever form it takes.
BUMP!
I appreciate the clarification on what you are seeking.
That being the case I think you would profit from reading "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" as that goes into great detail on the interaction of genes, homeoboxes, DNA, tool kits, switches and repressors. These mechanisms have been discovered in the process of mapping every nook and cranny. Without understanding them and how they operate, it is not possible to understand the limits and possibilities of genetic engineering. The author has been involved in the core research involving discovery of these basic processes, some knowledge of which is only several years old.
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
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