The Well-Traveled Bones of Christopher Columbus

Do you believe that they dug up Christopher Columbus’ bones in Sevilla, Spain in an effort to settle a long running dispute between Santo Domingo and Spain as to where his bones actually are? Well, they did and on October 16, 2006, it was concluded that some of his bones do indeed lie in Sevilla. At least that’s what I think.

To try to research this story is extremely confusing since some sources of information say the DNA tests proved the bones in Sevilla are not Columbus. Maybe that was a different DNA test, or maybe it’s Dominican propaganda since they want their bones to be as real as the bones in Spain. Who’s to say that some of the bones weren’t left in Santo Domingo and both places have authentic bones? So far, it seems the Dominican authorities aren’t permitting testing of the bones they claim belong to Chris.

My question is why is it SO important to know what happened to a person who died over 5 centuries ago? Couldn’t they just have come to an agreement about this, like civil and mature folks?

Columbus died in 1506 in Valladolid, Spain and his will set forth his specific wish be buried in America. However, while it’s said that the reason this wasn’t done was because there was no church in America that was deemed to be worthy of the privilege, I think it was far more likely a question of who’s going to pay for this? Columbus was buried in a small ceremony with few people present in a small monastery at Valladolid, Spain. He was dressed in the habit of the third order of Saint Francis and, in accordance with his instructions, he wore the chains he was sporting when he was arrested after his third voyage to the New World. Three lines of text marked his obituary in the official record.

You can believe that if you want to, or you can believe other reports that say his corpse underwent excarnation – the flesh was removed so that only bones were left – in which event, there was probably no need to gussy up the bones in the habit and then chain them up.