So in modern society there are museums everywhere but was this also the case in ancient societies? Did the Romans, Aztecs or Han Chinese have museums? When did it become common place to have public structures with artifacts that talked about the distant past?
There is definitely more to be said about the topic, but you should take a look at this answer from last year by u/bentresh which mentions the ancient museum of En-nigaldi-nanna (or the museum of Ur), an example of "antiquarianism in antiquity." It is the world's oldest known museum, although of course there's disagreement about exactly what it was or if it was part of a single collection.