A centuries-old historical row over the whereabouts of the body of Christopher Columbus appeared to have been solved yesterday when scientists in Spain conceded that the corpse buried at Seville's gothic Santa Maria cathedral was not that of the famous explorer.
Instead, the bones they studied were probably those of his lesser known son, Diego, who was a small and weedy man, unlike his father.
Christopher Columbus's body, the experts say, almost certainly lies back in the "new world" he sailed to 500 years ago.
The exhumation by Spanish anthropologists appears to have settled a row between Spain and the Dominican Republic, which has contested the claim that Columbus's bones ended up in Seville.
Although DNA tests have not been done, the anthropologists have already concluded that the body in Seville is too young and puny to have belonged to the rugged, hefty sailor who, depending on which version of history you prefer, was either Italian, Spanish or Portuguese.
"This was a man who never developed his musculature and died at around the age of 45," said Marcial Castro, who is leading the investigation. "Columbus was a strong man who was aged between 55 and 60 when he died."
The corpse lying under the Columbus Lighthouse monument in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, appears to be of someone around 60 years old who had taken a lot of physical exercise, he said. "I am convinced that Columbus is buried in the Dominican Republic," Mr Castro added.
Spanish investigators are now seeking permission to open the coffin in Santo Domingo, which was found in 1877 by workmen who discovered a small lead box of bone fragments inscribed "Illustrious and distinguished male, Don Cristóbal Colón".
Columbus's corpse is known to have had several resting spots in the years after he died in relative poverty in the Spanish city of Valladolid in 1506.
His body spent three years in Valladolid before an 18-year rest at a monastery in Seville. It was finally shipped to Santo Domingo, along with Diego's body, and interred in the cathedral. In 1795, when Spain handed Santo Domingo to France, some of the bones were carried to Cuba. These were taken back to Seville when the Spaniards were thrown out of Cuba in 1898.