The Japanese TV channel NHK produced in 2022 a documentary on Palaeolithic art around the world and the use of symbols during this period. The QUANTA project was involved in the documentary to discuss the origin of counting systems. Francesco d’Errico, PI of the QUANTA project, features in the documentary with two interviews in which he describe the technology of the best-known engraved ochre from the famous site of Blombos Cave, South Africa, dated to 72 000 years ago and present hypothesis on the emergence of symbols and cognitive tools for precise quantification. QUANTA Postdoctoral fellow Laura Cassard explains in the documentary the ongoing research by the QUANTA team on the well-known Laussel Venus, a Gravettian sculpted bloc interpreted in the past as bearing a numerical notation.
