Frühgriechische

Frühgriechische is a term used in German-language scholarship to describe the earliest phase of Greek language, literature and material culture. It typically covers the transition from Mycenaean Greek, as attested in Linear B tablets of the late Bronze Age, to the early Greek world of the Archaic period, when the Greek alphabet was adopted and the first substantial inscriptions and poetic texts appear. The exact dating varies by discipline, but a common framing places the core of Frühgriechische from roughly the 2nd millennium BCE through the 6th century BCE, ending with the consolidation of classical Greek culture.

In language, Frühgriechische encompasses the shift from Mycenaean Greek, written in Linear B, to the regional Greek dialects that would become Ionic, Doric, and Aeolic. The introduction of the Greek alphabet in the 8th century BCE, derived from the Phoenician script, enabled broader literacy and the production of inscriptions and early literary texts. Early literary activity expands through the Archaic period, with poetry and discourse developing distinctive dialectal and stylistic features by the 7th and 6th centuries BCE.

Material culture of Frühgriechische includes ceramic styles such as Geometric and the emergence of early black-figure and red-figure vase painting, sculpture, and monumental architecture associated with rising city-states (poleis) like Athens, Corinth, and Thebes. Urbanization, colonization, and trade helped to spread Greek influence across the Aegean and western Mediterranean during this era.

In scholarly usage, the label Frühgriechische is not a fixed chronological period and its boundaries vary by field (linguistics, archaeology, art history). It is often used descriptively to distinguish earlier proto-Greek phases from later Classical Greek culture, while acknowledging regional diversity and ongoing scholarly debate.