Around the year 1100 AD there was a lot going on in the world. A Northern people, known as the Vikings, had converted to Christianity and stopped their raiding (or Viking, as they knew it). To the south the Vikings, in that part of the world known as the Rus, had established a city called Kiev and traded as far away as Constantinople. In the Americas things had not gone so well, and the colonies in Newfoundland and Maine would not survive.
Far to the east another Polynesian people, escaping troubles, had migrated to a place they called Rapanui (Easter Island) and had started carving their huge stone figures, which would puzzle visitors for centuries to come. All was not well on the island, though, as resources were scarce and disputes had arisen between their tribes.
At the bottom of the world, not far from the Antarctic waters, there was a sleepy little land known as Aotearoa (New Zealand). In a century or so it would be colonised by yet another Polynesian group, the Māori, but for now it rested quietly amid bird song and was as yet untouched by the hand of man. Or so we thought.
