Cognitive Foundations of Early Indus Valley Civilization:Distributed Mercantile Symbolic Stabilization Along the Indus

This study applies the Deep Symbolic Systems Model (DSSM) to the Indus Valley Civilization (c. 7000–1900 BCE), framing civilization as the cumulative outcome of distributed symbolic stabilization rather than a direct consequence of agriculture, urbanism, or proto-writing. Symbolic cognition emerges from repeated, socially coordinated, and materially externalized practices: craft specialization, trade standardization, ritualized labor, and urban planning. Archaeological evidence—from Mehrgarh, Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Lothal, and Dholavira—is combined with compositional, genomic, and environmental studies of seals, weights, and standardized artifacts (Kenoyer, 1998, 2008; Wright, 2010; Jarrige, 2012). DSSM analysis predicts that these distributed practices produced durable cognitive infrastructure, enabling high-functioning mercantile networks without centralized bureaucracy or fully developed scripts. Comparative evaluation with Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Vinca demonstrates that practice-stabilized cognition functions across diverse ecological and demographic contexts, yielding convergent solutions to symbolic complexity, trade management, and long-distance coordination