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Scientists have turned to modern technology in a bid to solve a 100,000 murder mystery.

Using 3D reconstruction, they discovered that a Stone Age child, who was buried in a cave in Israel, suffered a blow to the head, which would likely have led to personality changes and difficulty communicating.

The experts say that they have found the oldest traumatic brain injury in south-western Asia, even if they have not proved whether the head trauma proved fatal.

Using 3D reconstruction (pictured) scientists discovered that a Stone Age child, who was buried in a cave in Israel 100,000 years ago, suffered a blow to the head, which would likely have led to personality changes and difficulty communicating

Using digital imaging and 3D reconstruction, scientists from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Bordeaux and the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, showed that the 12 or 13-year-old had a broken piece of bone depressed in their skull that was surrounded by linear fractures, as the result of a potentially violent attack.

Experts who first examined the remains of the child, who died and was buried at Qafzeh Cave in Israel 100,000 years ago, initially thought that the child had a skull lesion that healed.

But by using 3D reconstruction techniques, they were able to take a fresh look at inner bone lesions to determine the serious impact that the trauma would have had on the brain.

'Three-dimensional imaging methods allowed us to better explore this lesion, which appeared as being a frontal bone depressed fracture, associated with brain damage,' they wrote in the study.

They also estimated the brain's size to reconstruct what may have caused the damage.

Experts who first examined the remains of the child who died and was buried at Qafzeh Cave, Israel (shown on the map) some 100,000 years ago, initially thought that the child had a skull lesion that healed. But now they think that he or she suffered brain damage from the blow

'The endocranial volume, smaller than expected for dental age, supports the hypothesis of a growth delay due to the traumatic brain injury,' they added.

In doing this, the experts revealed that the type of fracture seen on the skull, usually occurs from a blow to the head, which could have been caused intentionally, but also by accident.

Whatever the cause, it is likely that the child experienced a change in personality as well as difficulty communicating and moving, according to the study, which was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Hélène Coqueugniot, of the university, told Science Daily: 'Digital imaging and 3D reconstruction evidenced the oldest traumatic brain injury in a Palaeolithic child.

'Post-traumatic neuropsychological disorders could have impaired social life of this individual who was buried, when a teenager, with a special ritual raising the question of compassion in Prehistory.'

The child's remains were found with two deer antlers lying on the upper chest, indicating they were buried carefully.

'This young individual benefited of a unique funerary practice among the south-western Asian burials dated to Middle Palaeolithic,' the scientists wrote in the study.

They hope that closer examination of the skull, as well as others found in the cave, can provide insights into the adaptation patterns and social behaviour of early nomadic hunter-gatherers.

It likely that the child suffered brain damage, as a result of a broken piece of bone depressed in their skull, which was surrounded by linear fractures (pictured). He or she may have experienced a change in personality as well as difficulty communicating and moving, the scientists explained