Columbus' DNA suggests he was a Sephardic Jew from the western Mediterranean

60 pointsposted 9 months ago
by geiser
(abc.es)

11 Comments

afavour

9 months ago

What a very strange thing to have at the top of Hacker News. Not to mention the article is in Spanish and deluged in ads.

usehackernews

9 months ago

What’s so strange about this? Columbus is one of the most important explorers in history, but his past, and resting place had been unconfirmed - even his birthplace was unknown.

500 years later after multi-year dna study, we now have the information and it paints a very fascinating picture. He left Spain in August, the same week that Jews were kicked out. This explains why he left Spain. He was known as a catholic, but it’s now clear this was due most likely due to forced conversion.

History is important, and this is a significant dna study that sheds light on the legacy of a key figure.

ywvcbk

9 months ago

> He left Spain in August, the same week that Jews were kicked out. This explains why he left Spain

Extremely absurd statement that makes absolutely no sense at all. Surely his investors expected him to return?

If his (possible) Jewish origin would have been know surely that would have came out during one of the lawsuits between the Crown and his descendants: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleitos_colombinos

> but it’s now clear this was due most likely due to forced conversion.

Or that his grandparents or even grand-grandparents were converts?

afavour

9 months ago

The strange parts:

- this is ostensibly a tech forum

- the article linked is not in English

- it’s barely readable in Spanish because of the popover ads. HN is usually pretty unforgiving of that.

ywvcbk

9 months ago

> this is ostensibly a tech forum

There are plenty of non tech related posts on the front-page all the time?

> barely readable

Who even read anything besides the headline these days?

oh_my_goodness

9 months ago

The last part is a very strong point, unfortunately.

whamlastxmas

9 months ago

It’s a hacker forum. Sailing across the world like he did was the hacker equivalent in the 1400s.

HN also constantly links to paywall articles, and I imagine at least ninety percent of people here use ad block

afavour

9 months ago

Comparing today’s tech hacking with sailing across the Atlantic is a very good joke, very funny.

whamlastxmas

9 months ago

Hacking in the context of hacker news doesn’t have to be related to technology at all