Cognitive Preconditions for the Deep Symbolic Systems Model (DSSM)

This study explores the cognitive foundations that enabled structured symbolic and ritual systems in human evolution, predating writing, agriculture, and urbanism. Using the Deep Symbolic Systems Model (DSSM), it outlines three phases: early technological cognition (Acheulean tool planning and social coordination), anatomical modernization (~300–50 ka) supporting hierarchical abstraction and proto-symbolic behavior, and behavioral stabilization (~50 ka onward) with redundant symbolic media and ritualized memory externalization. The paper demonstrates how these sequential developments created the enduring cognitive infrastructure necessary for stable symbolic systems.