In November 2016, the British Museum began investigating the provenance of the shield held by them. They held a workshop involving various experts, including curators from both the British and Australian Museums, academics from the Royal Armouries, Cambridge and the Australian National University, and two Aboriginal representatives from La Perouse (the location of Cook's landing site). The participants examined the species of wood, other shields held by the British Museum, museum records and catalogue, and old colonial shipping records. The results of the workshop were reported by Maria Nugent and Gaye Sculthorpe, an Aboriginal curator at the museum, and published in "Australian Historical Studies" in 2018. The study discussed the origin of the shield, concluding that its history may never be completely settled. Nicholas Thomas, director and curator of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, in his article in the same issue of "AHS", also examined the provenance of the shield, concluding that it is not the shield taken from Botany Bay in April 1770. Testing of the shield found that its wood is red mangrove, which can only be obtained at least north of Botany Bay. The hole in the shield was "inspected by a firearms specialist and examined for traces of lead", with the conclusion that it was not caused by a bullet.