It’s almost impossible to walk through the ruins of Pompeii without being struck by a certain melancholy. Here’s a city stuck in the past, fixed in place by a layer of hardened ash that swept over it following the powerful volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

The somber nature of the place is inescapable, then, and a new discovery has made it even more poignant. Archaeologists have discovered a room in the ruins — one that tells a dark and touching story.