If I may piggyback on this question, I'm also curious as to which ancient civilization had the best awareness of its own cultural origins or predecessor. For example, I know that there were Romans who studied the Etruscan language until the early imperial period, implying that they understood the Etruscans' role in shaping their civilization. Was any other civilization doing anything like this?

This question has been asked previously, so you may want to go read some of the answers there as well.