Today, Kurşunlu Han, used as an administrative building, houses the work rooms, library, conference hall, laboratory and workshop.

They start with the Paleolithic era, and continue chronologically through the Neolithic, Early Bronze, Assyrian trading colonies, Hittite, Phrygian, Urartian, Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuq and Ottoman periods.

There is also an extensive collection of artifacts from the excavations at Karain, Çatalhöyük, Hacılar, Canhasan, Beyce Sultan, Alacahöyük, Kültepe, Acemhöyük, Boğazköy (Gordion), Pazarlı, Altıntepe, Adilcevaz and Patnos as well as examples of several periods.

The exhibits of gold, silver, glass, marble and bronze works date back as far as the second half of the first millennium BC.

The coin collections, with examples ranging from the first minted money to modern times, represent the museum's rare cultural treasures.

In addition to this museum, artifacts from the Temple of Augustus and Rome and the Roman Baths of Ankara were also collected.

The Director of Culture at that time, Hamit Zübeyir Koşay and Saffet Arıkan, Minister of Education recommended that the Mahmut Paşa Bazaar and the Inn be repaired and converted into a museum.

Upon the completion of repairs of the bazaar, where the domed structure is, in 1940, a committee chaired by German Archaeologist H. G. Guterbock arranged the museum.

Restoration and exhibition projects of the part around the domed structure were prepared and applied by Architect İhsan Kıygı.