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Subject: Interesting
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 18:36:31 EST



Scientists Can't Examine Columbus' Tomb
(AP)SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Authorities said Saturday that more
discussions are needed before a Spanish research team can examine a tomb
purportedly holding Christopher Columbus' remains, setting back efforts to
determine if claims that he is buried in Spain are true.
The government initially had agreed to reopen the tomb on Feb. 15, but
authorities later backtracked after the event was heavily publicized.
Dominican authorities were upset with reports that researchers would do more
than visually inspect the bones. The dispute over which set of remains are
authentic has simmered for more than 100 years.
The tomb is housed in a sprawling monument to Columbus in the Dominican
capital of Santo Domingo. Spanish investigators had planned to look at the bones
to see if they were stable enough to take DNA samples.
If the genetic material was intact and the Dominican government approved, the
Spanish team had planned to check the DNA against samples from Columbus'
relatives buried in Seville, along with remains in a cathedral in Seville that
Spain says are those of Columbus himself.
But Andy Mieses, in charge of the monument, said the government wants further
discussions to ensure there are no misunderstandings about the purpose of
the opening. A new date for the opening was not set.
The Spanish team has examined DNA from the bones in Seville along with DNA
from remains widely believed to be those of Columbus' brother Diego and from
bones known to belong to Columbus' son Hernando. The latter two sets are also
in Seville.
Cross-checking the three samples has proved inconclusive because of the
deteriorated state of the DNA, prompting the researchers to want to examine the
bones in Santo Domingo.
Columbus was buried in the northern Spanish city of Valladolid, where he died
on May 20, 1506. He had asked to be buried in the Americas, but no church of
sufficient stature existed there. Three years later, his remains were moved
to a monastery on La Cartuja, next to Seville.
In 1537, Maria de Rojas y Toledo, widow of another of Columbus' sons, Diego,
sent the bones of her husband and his father to the cathedral in Santo
Domingo for burial. They remained there until 1795, when Spain ceded the island of
Hispaniola to France and decided Columbus' remains should not fall into the
hands of foreigners.
A set of remains that the Spaniards believed were Columbus' were first
shipped to Havana, then back to Seville when the Spanish-American War broke out in
1898.
In 1877, however, workers digging in the Santo Domingo cathedral unearthed a
leaden box containing bones and bearing the inscription, "Illustrious and
distinguished male, Christopher Columbus."
The Dominicans say these are the genuine remains and the Spaniards took the
wrong body with them back in 1795.



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