But isn’t the big story about why so many people thought it would be any different? From human paleontologists James Ohman and Asier Gomez-Olivencia at The Conversation:
But despite this harsh life of the hunter gatherer, our research indicates that some Neanderthals lived to be fairly old and even had some of the signs of age related illnesses – such as degenerative lesions in the spine, consistent with osteoarthritis. Our research also found that an adult male Neanderthal survived bone fractures. And when he died, he was buried by members of his group.
…
Denis Peyrony, the director of the excavation when La Ferrassie 1 was found, indicated that this individual was lying in a “funeral pit”, a purposefully dug hole where the corpse was laid. And our observations looking at the bone surface and the way the bones are broken are consistent with the corpse being buried shortly after death. The corpse also didn’t suffer any damage from carnivores – which would have been the case if the corpse had been left behind by the group. More.
What if there was never a point at which identifiable human beings were mindless?
See also: Neanderthal Man: The long-lost relative turns up again, this time with documents
and
A deep and abiding need for Neanderthals to be stupid. Why?