The major alterations in the historical framework occur in the first half of the book. The real excavations took place over two seasons, 1938 and 1939. In 1938 (20 June – 9 August) three mounds (and an indeterminate feature) were opened, and in 1939 (8 May – 3 September) the mound containing the famous undisturbed ship-burial was explored. In the novel the two seasons are merged into one, made to commence in April 1939 and to end at the outbreak of War (3 September 1939). Of the three 1938 mounds the excavation of the first is described in the novel (pp. 15–18, 23–24, 29–32). The second in the novel is probably meant for the third of 1938, a disturbed cremation burial: a dramatic episode of a landslide in the novel (pp. 34–36) is possibly transposed from other phases of the excavation not described.