Discovery Channel Documentaries

Columbus: Secrets from the Grave (2004x41)

Data di messa in onda: Ago 31, 2004

WHO WAS CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS? The answer to this deceptively simple question is undergoing a sea change. The rote response based on dusty, if questionable, documents in Genoa and recited in primary schools in the Old World and New is that Cristoforo Colombo, born in 1451: was an Italian ,was the son of lowly wool-workers, and therefore uneducated as well as lacking in experience in seamanship had legions of relatives in his hometown Genoa, none of them noble. Historians and scientists questioning Columbus' heritage have put modern forensic techniques to work to help answer questions. Perhaps the most critical is DNA testing performed this year on bones that are believed to be those of Christopher Columbus, as well as remains from Columbus' son (Hernando) and brother(Diego). Annunciada Colon, Columbus' direct descendent, handed over the key to a burial chest, disinterred from the Cathedral in Seville, Spain, that is reported to hold Columbus' bones. But there is debate about whether Columbus' body which was moved repeatedly over the centuries actually rests there. Dr. Antonio Lorente of the University of Granada in Spain, a specialist in forensic genetics, is attempting to compare the genetic material from the three sets of remains to see if he can prove that this is Columbus.