As a French-Peruvian, the depiction of "ancient times" differs greatly between my cultures.
While the French clearly have an "Ancient" period of time (Antiquity - although the Merovingian dynasty is so sparsely documented that it sometimes "feels" more ancient than the Roman Empire !) in Peru, the "ancient" concept is way more generous: one could argue that the Incan Empire already counts as "ancient history", even thought it is contemporary with Joan of Arc!
Clearly, something counts as "Ancient" once historical recordings become more sparse.
This led me to wonder, how did the concept of "Ancient" evolve over time?
How did Ancient Egyptians imagine the "ancient" past (surely not as a cavemen, heh, but some proto-historical civilization?)?
Did the Unified Roman Empire feel less "ancient" to the Byzantines than to the Franks?
Has there been any studies about this subject?
More can be said, perhaps in regards to the evolution of ancient historiography, if anyone has anything more to add, but in the meantime, you might find these older answers interesting: