Their findings are to be made public in October. Knowledge of the 15th-century navigator’s early life is scant. A major breakthrough in establishing a fuller profile of the man who died 515 years ago came after DNA tests in 2003 established that bones in a tomb in the cathedral of Seville were those of Columbus. Inmaculada Aleman, professor of physical anthropology, measures a bone from the alleged remains of Christopher Columbus and family members at Granada University in Spain (AP) But after that discovery, the research team from Spain’s Granada University that is leading the Columbus research decided to halt its investigation.