This conclusion was reached after “a thorough historical investigation confirmed by ground-penetrating radars,” according to the statement.
Researchers took samples of elements from the Seville burial sport — lead, brick, and golden threads — and discovered they matched the location of the excavated spot in Valladolid, it added.
Historians and archaeologists have since recreated in 3D the dimensions of Columbus’s chapel in Valladolid.
According to the instructions he left behind, his remains were moved from Seville to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, in 1544.
His skeleton was moved to Havana in 1795 before being shipped back across the Atlantic and returned to Seville in 1898.
The Dominican Republic claims Columbus is buried in Santo Domingo at an ornate lighthouse.
The researchers behind the 2005 DNA study stated that while they are certain the bones in Seville are from Columbus, they believe the tomb in Santo Domingo may also contain some of his remains.
Columbus, long hailed as the “discoverer” of “The New World” in school textbooks, is widely regarded as the catalyst for years of genocide against indigenous groups in the Americas.