Let's just describe the prehistory from the record that exists.
Neanderthals were very gradually driven to ground, over thousands of years of conflict, in what can only be described as a race or civilizational long war of attrition with modern human migrants out of Africa.
Neanderthals certainly weren't killed off suddenly by diseases.
They held territory, lost it, regained it, and lost it, over thousands of years of strife, from 2,600 to 5,400 years of overlap, according to Higham.
They intermixed slightly with modern humans, but that intermixing was minor compared to the violent population replacement that occurred gradually over a wide area over thousands of years.
Neanderthals weren't driven extinct by natural selection at all.
They were driven extinct by cultural conflict with modern human populations from which they differed markedly and readily identifiably in appearance and cultural heritage.
There is plenty of evidence in the fossil record that Neanderthals were often hunted and eaten like prey by modern humans in many places. Doubtless, the reverse is also true. Caves overlooking the Mediterranean in Spain are perhaps the most well known site.
It seems feasible, and probably genetically determinable, that Neanderthals were substantially more intelligent than modern humans.
It seems feasible, and probably genetically determinable, that Neanderthals were substantially more intelligent than modern humans.
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