Archaeology is the study of the ancient and recent human past through their material remains obtained through systematic excavation and the analysis of artefacts and other physical remains. Archaeologists have long studied diseases in past populations through various evidence such as settlement layout, burials, funerary remains, and human (including hominid) skeletal remains. In this way they gain insight into the ideal environments for a pandemic to get a foothold and the strategies that earlier societies adopted to deal with it.

Machemma, also known as Machemma’s Kop, refers to the ruins of an archaeological Iron Age site that is situated on the farm Solvent about 20 kilometres northwest of the Waterpoort railway station, which is due north of the Soutpansberg in Limpopo, and 27 kilometres west of Wyllie’s Poort, an N1 road pass in the Soutpansberg.  The settlement on top of the kopje (hill) was the chief’s stronghold, while the ordinary members of the tribe lived in the valleys to the north and south.