I think the most salient way that they have been colored by biases is by access. Many near eastern ancient historical artifacts were discovered during the late 19th and early 20th century, which corresponded with the zenith of power for several European empires. This of course meant that lots of it ended up getting shipped back to Europe or America, rather than staying in the countries they were found in (see the British Museum, the Louvre, various archaeology museums at western Universities). This means that instead of being connected to the deeper history of a place, far ancient history was often treated as entirely disconnected from its place of origin. Only now is some of this being rectified, with several high profile repatriations of artifacts. Still, as the recent bombing of the archaeological museum in Cairo shows, there is (somewhat justified) hesitancy towards relinquishing some of these artifacts.