A near century-long dispute has now come to an end. This past weekend, I joined tens of thousands of witnesses who visited Lima’s Government Palace to view the free exhibition of Incan artifacts returned to Peru by Yale University at long last. The story begins with Hiram Bingham, a U.S. explorer co-sponsored by the National Geographic Society who rediscovered and excavated Machu Picchu during various expeditions between 1912 and 1915. Peru and Yale made an agreement that Bingham could borrow over 40,000 archeological pieces consisting of bones, ceramics and jewelry from Machu Picchu for 18 months, but the artifacts were not returned until now.

Historians often refer to Machu Picchu as “The Lost City of the Incas” because it remained hidden from the conquistadors during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. When Bingham stumbled upon Machu Picchu in the 20th century, it was covered in jungle growth and had been unpopulated since the 15th century when Huayna Cápac was still young — Huayna Cápac was the penultimate Incan emperor who is credited with expanding and developing the Incan Empire to its most successful state in history.

So, what do we know of Machu Picchu during the five centuries it remained uninhabited?

From one of the manuscripts of the Count of Nieva, a Spanish-appointed governor of Peru, we know that Machu Picchu was part of a major land distribution to Spanish loyalists. It was first entrusted to Hernando Pizarro, brother of Francisco Pizarro who is famous for conquering the Incan Empire, and later to an Arias Maldonado.

In 1992, the historian José Tamayo Herrera found an old deed that states: “Doña Manuela Almirón Villegas sold the lands of Pijchu, Machupijchu and Huaynapijchu to Señores Pedro and Antonio Ochoa for the sum of $350. In turn, in 1782, these men resold the aforementioned lands for $450 to the Spanish mayor of the Urubamba Valley.”

Imagining how many hands Machu Picchu has passed through without the realization and discovery of its value had me thinking — how many things in my own life have I undervalued and later “rediscovered”? Overalls I had thrown in the back of my closet ended up being the predominant piece of my Pippi Longstocking costume. The four years of high school Spanish I left to waste during my university years has contributed to what is now my primary mode of communication in Peru. My entire immediate and extended family, who I had turned away from to follow my own path, were the very people who provided and continue to provide the most support.

What treasures have you “rediscovered” in your life?