MADRID — In a discovery that could create a new venue for literary pilgrims, Spanish investigators said on Tuesday that they might have located part of the remains of Cervantes, whose novel “Don Quixote” has enthralled readers over centuries with stories of its eponymous knight and his servant, Sancho Panza.
Cervantes, often lauded as having written the first modern novel, died in 1616 after requesting burial in a convent in Madrid where, for almost a year, investigators have been searching the subsoil for bones that they now believe to include some of the author’s.
“Everything coincides to lead us to believe that Cervantes is there,” a forensics expert, Francisco Etxeberria, said at a news conference in Madrid, .
The investigators cautioned, however, that it may be impossible to guarantee that the bones are those of the writer. Almudena García-Rubio, an archaeologist, said that there was “no confirmed genetic identification,” although DNA tests were being performed.
The whereabouts of Cervantes’s tomb had been a mystery since the Convent of the Discalced Trinitarians was rebuilt in the late 17th century. The remains were finally found below the ground of the crypt of the church, at a depth of about 50 inches in a box that contained bones from 10 adults and five children, according to Fernando de Prato, a historian who led the search for Cervantes.
Mr. de Prato said that the forensic team still faced “a lot of work” to separate the bones, perhaps try to reconstruct the bodies, and perform DNA testing. “It would of course have been better to find his remains complete,” to establish the identity of Cervantes with certainty, he said, “but I still have the feeling today of having reached the end of a journey.”
The team of investigators used infrared cameras, 3D scanners and radar to search the crypt and its alcoves.
During the excavations, the investigators found decayed wood from a coffin with the letters M and C marked out in tacks. (Cervantes’s full name was Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.) The discovery of the coffin was announced in January, but it turned out to contain the remains of a child rather than those of the writer, Mr. de Prato said.
Cervantes is most often remembered for “Don Quixote,” which gave the world the word quixotic in acknowledgment of its central character and his adventures, including his joust with windmills. The expression “tilting at windmills” also denotes people who take on imaginary adversaries.
But such recognition as a writer came too late to bring Cervantes any fortune, after a life spent mostly as a soldier — including a five-year spell in captivity after intercepted his naval ship.
The discovery of the possible remains comes as and the literary world celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of the second volume of “Don Quixote” (the first one was published in 1605).
The authorities in Madrid are hoping to build a monument within the church to commemorate the writer, with the goal of completing that work by April of next year, the 400th anniversary of his death.