London, July 26 (IANS): Anthropologists have unearthed a 100,000-year-old skeleton of a child in Israel who may have died because of a brain injury - the oldest evidence of brain damage in a modern human.
The 3D imaging results revealed that the child survived head trauma for several years, but suffered from permanent brain damage as a result.
Growth in teeth showed that the child was about 12-13 years old during the time of death.
The child's brain volume was more similar to that of a six- or seven-year-old.
"People cared for him/her for years which shows that it is the most ancient evidence of compassion and altruism," said Helene Coqueugniot from University of Bordeaux in France.
The skeleton was uncovered in a cave site known as Qafzeh in Galilee, Israel.
The findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE.