Scientists to search ancient writer Cervantes’s remains

A team of Spanish scientists is planning to search the lost remains of Spain’s 15th century iconic writer Miguel de Cervantes.

Cervantes, the writer of famous novel Don Quixote, died on 22 April 1616 while the precise location of his burial is not known.

He was buried in Madrid’s Convento de las Trinitarias, but the coffin containing his remains was lost during construction work at the church.

Enough information about his physical features along with particular equipment such as ground-penetrating radar is required to do the research, forensic scientists announced.

The work of scanning, exhuming and analyzing any findings are also needed which will take nearly several months, they say.

“It is important to gather as much information about Cervantes’s physical features as possible to be able to accurately identify the remains,” said forensic anthropologist Francisco Etxeberria, who is taking part in the project.

“Cervantes described himself as having a curved nose, and a hunchback, caused by osteoarthritis. But also, he said that he had almost no teeth, just six of them,” Etxeberria explained.

The ground and walls of the oldest part of the convent would be the focus of the search, researchers indicated.

The cost of the searching project is estimated around 100,000 euros (USD138,000).

Miguel de Cervantes was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, is a classic of Western literature. The book is also considered the first modern European novel.