Hello historians, can someone please help me figure this out?
So, I'm writing a book, it's fiction. In the book we have an object (imaginary ofc) but in the book's world (which is the same as ours) it exists, it's a ring that existed in the times of the ancient Greeks and through time it went through Italy and then ended up in England, buried inside a church. I was wondering if anyone has traced an object through history, how did you do it? Since the characters are trying to trace it and trying to figure out how it ended up in England, I was wondering if anyone has done a similar type of research so I can do the exact thing but in reverse, should I just go about and search books of the different time periods and prominent people of the eras and mention them some way or another, I'm trying to make it real and believable.
Would love to hear any opinion. Thank you for reading this!
Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your creative project, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists and the like, based on past experience: some people working on creative projects have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.
Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.
For more general advice about doing research to inform a creative project, please check out our Monday Methods post on the subject.