Experts largely dismiss claim due to lack of concrete evidence.
A new Spanish documentary has reignited the debate about the origins of Christopher Columbus, suggesting that the famed explorer was born in Spain, not Italy, and was of Sephardic Jewish descent.
According to tradition, the 15th-century navigator was born in 1541 in the northwest Italian city of Genoa, however the documentary claims that the result of a DNA test on his remains suggest that Columbus was likely born in western Europe, possibly in the Spanish city of Valencia.
The documentary, which aired on Spain’s national television channel, makes the claim that Columbus concealed his Jewish roots to avoid persecution during the time of the Spanish Inquisition.
Titled The DNA of Columbus: His True Origin, the programme was broadcast on Spain’s Fiesta Nacional, a date that celebrates Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas in 1492.
The key proponent of the theory is forensic medicine professor José Antonio Lorente who claims that the remains attributed to Columbus – exhumed from Seville Cathedral in 2003 – tell a different story than what has been commonly accepted.
Lack of concrete evidence
In the documentary, Lorente suggests that Columbus was born to a Jewish family of silk merchants in Valencia but fled from his true origins to escape the harsh religious persecution of the era.
The skeleton, consisting of just 150 grams of bone fragments, has been at the centre of investigations for two decades.
However despite the media buzz generated by the claim in the documentary, historians and geneticists have largely dismissed the theory due to a lack of concrete evidence.
Scepticism from scholars
Historians continue to support the traditional view that Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa to a Christian family, with his father Domenico and mother Susanna.
Antonio Alonso, a prominent Spanish geneticist, criticised the documentary for failing to provide scientific evidence.
“No DNA data was presented, nor were there any details about the techniques used or the results obtained,” Alonso told El País.
“Nothing new”
Italian historian Antonio Musarra, associate professor of Medieval History at Sapienza University of Rome, said the theory is “nothing new”.
“Over the years, Cristoforo Colombo was Polish, Sephardic Jew, Iberian, from Piacenza” – Musarra told news agency ANSA – “It is difficult to recognise Columbus’ Genoese origins because the documents kept in the State Archives of Genoa, very plentiful, present more than one person of the same name. There is more than one Cristoforo and more than one Domenico Colombo, his father. But Columbus certainly lived in Genoa”.
Musarra said that the writings of Colombus show “strong references to the ‘Genoese homeland'”, and that he had “close ties with the Fieschi family, to whom he is linked, as well as with many Genoese financiers. There are incontrovertible elements. Francesco Guicciardini himself says he is Genoese”.
Not a scientific work
Lorente acknowledges that the documentary is not a scientific work but rather a narrative of the research process.
The theory of Columbus’ Jewish and Valencian origins is largely a process of elimination, according to Lorente, and is far from conclusive.
He has pledged that DNA data will be made available in due course, though for now, the claims remain speculative.
In 2003, anthropologist Miguel Botella, who analysed the remains in Seville, confirmed that they belonged to a man who died between the ages of 50 and 60, consistent with Columbus’ known age at death.The birthplace of Columbus has long been a subject of debate, with over 25 different locations being proposed, ranging from Greece to Portugal, Scandinavia to Poland.
Death of Colombus
Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain, in 1506 at the age of 55.
After his death, his remains were transported across the Atlantic multiple times, as he had requested to be buried in Hispaniola, the first land he set foot on during his historic 1492 voyage.
His remains were first interred in Cuba before being moved to Seville in the late 19th century.
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