I listen to the Fall of Civilizations podcast now and then, and it seems like every episode starts with a nineteenth century traveller stumbling across some ancient ruins which the locals people have long-neglected and making extensive observations in their diary. It seems like I hear a lot about endeavours to understand and excavate ancient history which begain in the era of European colonialism. Was this the first time in history people started rocking up and digging up fossils, ancient ruins and dead bodies from centuries past?
Did Qing era scholars ever make attempts to study Qin era ruins? What did Babylonians make of abandoned Sumerian cities? When did the 'science' of the deep past as we know it take form?
/u/Bentresh has previously answered Were there any archaeologists in ancient cultures?
/u/CommodoreCoco has previously talked about the difference between archaeologists and graverobbers
/u/Snapshot52 has also answered How long does someone have to be dead for it to be considered archaeology instead of graverobbing?
Et cetera. Not all archaeology has historically been methodical or disciplined. More answers remain to be written.