The archaeological site of Cornus is bound to the illustrious figure of Antonio Taramelli (Udine, 14 November 1868 - Roma, 7 May 1939), who dedicated his research to Sardinian antiquities, and also protected and restored cultural heritage (figs. 1-2).

Fig. 1 - Antonio Taramelli (from http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Taramelli#mediaviewer/File:Antonio_Taramelli.jpg).

Fig. 2 - Caricature of A. Taramelli by T. Sini (from ZUCCA 1992).

During his career, he held several posts such as Inspector for the conservation of monuments (1895), Director of the museum and the antiquity digs of Cagliari (1908), Superintendent of the archaeological digs and museums of Sardinia (1924), Professor of Archaeology of the University of Cagliari.

In the months of May and June 1916, he performed several digs in the Cornus area. He managed to locate the remains already found in the XIX century and recognise the various poles. The new archaeological activities enabled him to identify the Corchinas acropolis and the walls, the forum, the Punic, Roman and Christian necropolises areas, the aqueduct and the port. He described the numerous finds and stressed how both illegal and official digs had already devastated Cornus as of 1821. A. Taramelli created the new museum pole in Cagliari and curated the exhibition. The collections that till then had been on display in Palazzo Vivanet (fig. 3) were located in piazza Indipendenza, in the building designed by the architect Dionigi Scano (1867-1949).

Fig. 3 - Exhibition hall of Palazzo Vivanet in Via Roma (from PALA 2014, p. 415, fig. 2).

In 1914 they acquired the Gouin collection which included several finds coming from Cornus, this plus the massive finds made during the explorations of Taramelli himself all over the island.