A decades-long investigation led by forensics scientist José Antonio Lorente from the University of Granada in Spain has now come out in support of claims that Columbus may not be of Italian heritage after all, but was actually born somewhere in Spain to parents of Jewish ancestry.

A new documentary explores 20 years of research into the navigator’s roots, suggesting his birthplace is in the ‘western Mediterranean’

The research, led by Spanish scientists suggests Christopher Columbus concealed Sephardic Jewish roots to escape persecution.