vroeghistorische

Vroeghistorische is a Dutch term meaning "early historical" and is used as an attributive adjective in scholarly writing to designate periods, places, objects, or phenomena that belong to the early phase of a region's recorded history. The term sits between the categories prehistoric and historic; its exact chronological boundaries are region-specific and depend on when writing, documentary sources, or other textual traces begin to appear in the area.

In archaeology, history, and cultural history, vroegehistorische material refers to artifacts, settlements, landscapes, and art associated with early writing, early administration, urbanization, or state formation as evidenced by inscriptions, textual references in other languages, or documentary material. The concept is often used to discuss transitions from prehistory to history or to describe periods that are known primarily through documentary sources but still show continuity with earlier material culture.

The use of the term can overlap with protohistorisch, depending on the scholarly tradition; protohistorisch generally refers to a transitional phase where external written sources mention a culture but its own records are sparse. Because it is a regional label rather than a universal fixed period, the exact scope of vroegehistorische varies among disciplines and regions. See also protohistory and the study of early historical periods in regional chronologies.