Deep Symbolic Stabilization Across Early Civilizations:A Global DSSM Synthesis

This paper presents a revised global synthesis of the Deep Symbolic Systems Model (DSSM), integrating evidence from Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, East Asia, Mesoamerica, and pan-prehistoric contexts. Using four diagnostic criteria—intergenerational repetition, spatial constraint, cross-media redundancy, and persistence under stress—DSSM demonstrates that symbolic systems stabilize long before monumentality, writing, or state formation. Comparative analysis identifies multiple structural pathways to symbolic saturation, including landscape-fixed anchors, portable craft traditions, distributed ritual networks, and infrastructural embedding. Monumentality and writing are shown to emerge as late-stage codifications of pre-existing symbolic load rather than as primary drivers of symbolic complexity. The revised framework introduces a formal DSSM decision matrix, explicit falsification conditions, and an ordinal scoring appendix, rendering DSSM analytically testable and transferable. Prehistory is thereby rendered structurally coherent across divergent ecological and cultural contexts.