Are their indications that ancient cultures practiced archaeology and palaeontology too?

by manganants
Alkibiades415

As far as the ancient Mediterranean, the answer is "no." I talk about Greco-Roman knowledge of and interest in pre-Iron Age societies over here.

Bentresh

They were aware of ancient history, and people often interacted with artifacts from much earlier time periods, but archaeology as it is practiced today did not exist at the time. I've written about this with respect to Mesopotamia and Egypt in a couple of past answers: