( CNN ) '' In order to attain the impossible , one must attempt the absurd , '' wrote Miguel de Cervantes , the Shakespeare of Spain . And the quest to find his remains has sometimes seemed both , even ( dare one say it ) quixotic in a time of recession . But forensic scientists have persevered , and appear to have triumphed . Almost 400 years after Cervantes ' death , a team led by Francisco Etxeberria announced Tuesday that they were confident they had found Cervantes ' coffin in the crypt of the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians in the Barrio de Las Letras ( Literary Quarter ) in Madrid . Historical records indicated Cervantes had been buried there , but the convent had been substantially rebuilt since . ( Etxeberria , incidentally , performed the autopsy on former Chilean President Gen. Salvador Allende , confirming he had committed suicide . ) At a news conference in Madrid on Tuesday , Etxeberria said that while there was no mathematical proof or DNA test available to completely verify the findings , there were `` many coincidences and no discrepancies '' in the examination of `` Osario 32 , '' a common grave in the crypt that contained the remains of 16 people . `` We have Cervantes , represented in some form in this group of bones that are unfortunately very degraded and very fragmented , '' Etxeberria told national television . The search for Cervantes ' coffin -- using radar -- began last year , funded by the Madrid City Council . It first mapped more than 30 burial cavities in the walls and nearly 5 meters beneath the floor of the church . Mass spectrometry dated fragments of wood and cloth found in these cavities to the 17th century , an encouraging but far from conclusive development . One crumbling coffin found in January had the initials `` M C '' hammered in nail heads , along with a jumble of skeletal remains . Even then Exteberria urged caution , but further research has narrowed the odds . The forensic team had been hoping that some of those remains would positively identify Cervantes , who suffered gunshot wounds in the chest and left hand at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 . But they are not in sufficiently good shape , and some of the remains found may be of Cervantes ' wife , Catalina de Salazar . Nor will DNA analysis be much help , for there are no known descendants of Cervantes . Catalina was not Cervantes ' first partner . As a teenager he ran away from home with a barmaid , Josefina de Perez , before enlisting with the Spanish Navy . It was only in the 1580s that he started to write , publishing `` La Galatea '' in 1585 and his most famous work , `` Don Quixote , '' in 1605 -- or to give its full title , `` The Adventures of the Ingenious Nobleman Don Quixote of La Mancha . '' But `` Don Quixote '' would hardly be noticed in Cervantes ' lifetime , and he was almost penniless when he died , having joined the Third Order of St. Francis in his declining years . He knew he was dying when he wrote in the prologue of a posthumously published novel , `` Perhaps the time may come when I mend again this broken thread and say what words fail me here and what needed to be said . Farewell , waggish jokes ; farewell , wittiness ; farewell , merry friends , for I am dying and longing soon to see you , happy in the life to come . '' Cervantes was buried on April 23,1616 -- in the same week William Shakespeare died . There are now plans to reinter Cervantes at the convent and build a new entrance to the crypt in time for the 400th anniversary of Cervantes ' death next year . Tyler Fisher , a lecturer in Hispanic studies at Royal Holloway College in London , says that such exhumations `` ignite public attention , inspire re-readings , and invest an all-but-forgotten corner of the city with a renewed , imaginative depth . '' Cervantes might enjoy all the attention . Many literary critics say he was not aware of his own genius . John Ormsby , a scholar and translator of Cervantes ' work in the 19th century , wrote of `` Don Quixote , '' `` Never was a great work so neglected by its author . '' CNN 's Helena Cavendish de Moura contributed to this report .
Scientists say they 've found the burial place of the influential author . Miguel de Cervantes died in 1616 .