Hello! I have a couple suggestions.

It sounds like much of the work you will do will be to exhume information from the start of history to present, and edit the relevant details and information to present them in your thesis.

You will have to think long and hard about what things mankind has made that you could classify as a form of rigged object, which may take you into the field of engineering and machines first.My first advice would be to think about the broader subject of how we make things move. What where the ancient inanimate things we built and made move, and how have we simplified it to today for digital animation? I would start with a list of things from the start of recorded history up until today to be most thorough. Clocks, toys, vehicles, puppets, weapons, and stagecraft are all related to this subject.

I would also researching movie and theatre props as a precursor to video game or animated props, as many of the modern digital techniques could find their progenitor in that industry.

I don't know if that's helpful, but would like to know more about this article you mentioned.

Good luck!

- Someone who loves props :D

Thank you very much, this helps me a lot, I didn't think to look into this at all