Neither the task of finding a Miguel de Cervantes was a breeze, and there is probably quite certain his discovery. But the scientists seeking to Cervantes said today have located skeletal remains of Spanish author in very bad condition.
The bone fragments and splinters, are mixed in an ossuary with at least another 15 bodies in the crypt of the convent of Discalced Trinitarians of Madrid , where Cervantes was buried in 1616 . These residues will be difficult to isolate, identify and collate DNA , which feeds the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the man who wrote the most important novel of Spanish literature: “The Adventures of Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote La Mancha “.
” It is understandable that people would have excited a complete skeleton, but this is the most you’re going to find, “said the historian who devised throughout the project, Fernando Prado. “We are confident that the remains of Miguel de Cervantes are among those found in the crypt of the church.”
“They can say very little. But this is not Indiana Jones and passed 400 years, “he said.
After two months of excavation, Almudena García Rubio, head of the archaeological team, said the tomb located is the deepest underground crypt and there is evidence dress remains of corpses and a coin dating from the seventeenth century. However, he admitted that it has not been possible to isolate a body and it will be impossible.
No recognizable remains of the left hand, which the writer had stalled for years by a war wound, nor the skull and chest. But archaeologists are convinced that your body is between these fragments.
This is based on historical sources, documenting how 17 bodies, including that of Cervantes, were transferred to the convent church to the crypt during extension works between 1698 and 1730.
“In light of all the information generated from historical, archaeological and anthropological is possible to consider that among these fragments are some belonging to Miguel de Cervantes ”
García Rubio said.
Francisco Etxeberria, one of the most famous in the world and responsible maximum forensic anthropologists project, said that from now try to extract a genetic profile of bones. But given the degradation there is no certainty as possible. Comparison of DNA is not practical a priori. No known writer offspring.
Some historians have suggested the possibility to compare the DNA profile with her sister, who was buried in Alcala de Henares, just outside Madrid, at the same time. But the bones of the author’s sister Luisa de Cervantes, religious, are in a mass grave with hundreds of bodies.
Etxeberria, who participated in the autopsy confirmed the suicide of former Chilean President Salvador Allende, and warned repeatedly that the search was not easy, especially because it’s been 400 years. And because history is always full of surprises.
In fact, it was thought that in the crypt of the Trinity, in the Letras district of central Madrid, just 30 people were buried. The reality is that anthropologists have found up to 240 bodies. One of them, supposedly de Cervantes.
“It’s more than a hypothesis”, Etxeberria said to try to resolve the doubts about the study’s findings. “Coincidences of historical, archaeological and anthropological elements leads us to believe that there (in the grave) would Cervantes on reasonable terms. ”
” But we can not do a mathematical verification in terms of absolute certainty “he added.
The council said it has invested 160,000 euros ($ 170,045) since last year. Mayor Ana Botella said it’s a historic find for the city and the country. This year marks 400 years since the publication of the second part of Don Quixote and in 2016, the fourth centenary of the death of its author.
After the genetic work, who knows how long it will last, the authorities should decide what to do with the remains. If they return to the anonymity of the crypt, somehow separated or identified under the name Miguel de Cervantes.
Cervantes died at 69 years (1547-1616) practically ruined. His left hand was crippled by a war injury he suffered in the Battle of Lepanto, two brands rifle musket on his chest and just six teeth, as he himself admitted in one of his last stories.
The fame of his novel Don Quixote did not arrive until long after his death. But by then his remains were already lost.
It’s not the first time that Spain is doing justice to some of its most universal figures. A similar project in 2009 failed in the attempt to recover the remains of Federico García Lorca, shot in 1936 and buried in the open in a pit at the start of the Spanish Civil War.
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