Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum Christopher Columbus?

Four Nationalities now seem desperate to find the truth about Christopher Columbus's Origins

They seem to be going to a lot of trouble, using DNA extracted from his bones to uncover his past.
One wonders why,.....and does the outcome make any difference?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/us/08columbus.html?ref=science

It has to be an emotional thing, and racial origins are so important in the US, maybe it wouldn't be so important if CC had discovered somewhere else. I agree--It really doesn't matter, and the knowledge and social consequences of the voyages of CC will not be advanced, changed or expanded by finding out he was a left-handed blond front row forward from Glasgow in my opinion!!!

For Italian Americans in particular, his ethnicity is of great importance emotionally! Of course, wherever he was born, he appears to have spent so much of his life at sea that he had to be the product of a lot of the different cultures in the Mediterranean area of his day.

Nobody is going to be convinced by the DNA testing--His bones were moved around quite a bit, and there's plenty of credible reason to deny that the official "bones" aren't his, or at least were contaminated. So anyone who doesn't like the results of any genetic testing will be on firm ground in rejecting the analysis. Pointless to do the test, as far as I am concerned.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060531.SEVILLE31/TPStory/Travel

See the above for a brief account of the travels of the bones of Columbus.

Wow, thanks for finding that second post of yours MikeBinOK, interesting.
Who would have thought it? Competing tombs, on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, just to see who can attract the most offertory money, or should that be ossuary?