For some reason it was very hard for the Victorians who pioneered archaeology to understand that ancient humans were actual human beings and not storytelling archetypes or moral exemplars. This kind of archaeology is just inverted science fiction: Commenting on the present through the lens of the imaginary past, instead of the imaginary future.
The Victorians found it very hard to see contemporary humans as anything other than archetypes or moral exemplars. In this way they are quite similar to us moderns.
Despite me having (almost) nothing to do with the Victorians, I have to regularly shake off a vague sense of respecting the Greeks for having "laid the foundation" for us in the 21st c. Because they did nothing of the kind -- they were just doing things they wanted to do, just like we are today. Heron's aeolipile was a mechanical curiosity, not a steam engine. Big difference.
