The second mound explored in 1938 (known as Mound 2), which contained a disturbed burial which had included a ship, is not described, but is merged into the account of the excavation of the famous ship-mound ("Mound 1"), which took place in 1939. Hence the true story of the excavation of Mound 2 is suppressed, and the preparations for the 1939 excavation omitted. Some glassware found in Mound 2 is, in the novel, transposed to Mound 1 (e.g. p. 61). Thus the novel cannot portray what was learnt by the experience and findings of the 1938 dig, and how that informed the 1939 discovery.