New archaeological discoveries south of Khartoum in south-central Sudan are enhancing our ability to determine the spread of items originating from the Meroitic state 2000 years ago, beyond the political borders of the state. For the first time in a full-length paper, this research aims to increase our knowledge of archaeological sites dating to this period along the very poorly understood White Nile. The conditions of the sites are outlined, archival research was undertaken through an examination of the original excavation notes and records, and the importance of future research is highlighted. The results shed new light on the features of the communities living to the south of the state as well as how they interacted with the Meroitic state. The conclusions suggest that the lack of civil, political, and religious Meroitic constructions are indicative of a lack of political control over the White Nile where the archaeological evidence demonstrates that fisher-hunting activities predominated. However, there were commercial relations between these rural areas, and the Meroitic state was based on the White Nile's need for ivory, wood, animals, slaves, and perishable items such as leather, and on the presence of Meroitic products such as amulets, gold ornaments, iron arrowheads, and pottery.

Meroe is one of Africa's most famous archaeological sites, renowned not least for its evidence of ironworking. Yet, the extensive slagheaps that characterise the site have received little archaeological attention. To illuminate the chronology and distribution of these remains, this article combines extant excavation data with the results of recent site-wide surface and geoprospection survey, and ongoing slagheap excavation and radiocarbon dating. The slagheaps date predominantly to either the Early (Napatan) or Late (late/post-Meroitic) periods, with little evidence for activity between c. 300 BC and AD 300—precisely when Meroe was the capital of the Kingdom of Kush—indicating significant reorganisation of the city's industrial base at this time.

Game-boards carved on monuments offer an intriguing opportunity to track a certain mindset in time and space. In an earlier Antiquity article, the author showed us that mancala boards were carved on the Roman plinths at Palmyra by Arab soldiers. Here he takes us into Sudan, finding new mancala boards on the first-millennium pyramids at Meroe. With adroit detective work, he shows that these too are probably owed to military visitors, this time a group of nineteenth-century Turkish soldiers of the Ottoman empire—perhaps those assigned to help Giuseppe Ferlini to blow up and pillage the tombs.