Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow 2026-2027
PhD, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, 2026
Dr. Claudia Zancan is an archaeologist specialising in the protohistory of the Japanese archipelago. Her area of interest sits at the intersection of the Archaeology of Death, Cognitive Archaeology, Phenomenological Archaeology and Archaeology of Prehistoric Art, with a focus on the decorated tombs of the Late and Final Kofun period (6th–7th centuries CE) on the island of Kyushu. Her research investigates the active role of images within funerary contexts, exploring how iconographic programmes shaped mortuary practices, the perception of burial spaces, and sociocultural dynamics in ancient Japan.
Currently, she is also a Research Associate of the Language and the Anthropocene Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena (Germany) and a Subject Expert at the Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy). Between 2023 and 2024, she conducted archaeological fieldwork in Kyushu, carrying out first-hand investigations inside decorated tombs (sōshoku kofun) in collaboration with local cultural heritage authorities and major Japanese museums. She is also the Scientific Director of the IRIAE archaeological project Sōshoku Kofun Tale, officially recognised by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI).
Claudia holds a PhD in Asian and African Studies from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, alongside a BA in Japanese Studies from University of Rome La Sapienza, an MA in Archaeology from Leiden University and an MA in Language and Civilisation of Asia and Mediterranean Africa from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
At the Sainsbury Institute, she will work on revising her doctoral dissertation – Living Images, Embodied Spaces: Agency and Perception of the Burial Environment in the Painted Decorated Tombs of Late Kofun Kyūshū – into a book manuscript, as well as on the agency of images and of the tomb itself as social infrastructure, specific iconographic programmes, and the embodied experience and perception of decorated funerary spaces.