I highly doubt that. They lacked communication skills. Dont confuse being a survivalist with being intelligent. Im sure they where physical superior to us and had better instincts.

No they did have the ability to have imagination, after all they buried their dead and decorated the bones with ochre before we were around.

And that makes them "intelligent"?

it shows the ability to care for members of the tribe. Evidence for caring also for the sick has been found which indicates they must have some intelligence either as intelligent or near to us that made them good. Please remember that they did make changes in stone-tool using during this period as well plus there is evidence for Neanderthals making bone flutes. Music like that does require intelligence.

I hear 11b plays the skin flute.

So if caring for your sick makes you intelligent then we must be super advance intelligent beings because we have hospitals and EMS, right?


If they were so intelligent they would not be extinct.

They were perhaps intelligent, but not as intelligent as Homo Sapiens. Or maybe Homo Sapiens is simply a more aggressive species.
Intelligence is not some descrete value.

I think 11b didn't read all of my post or stopped after the caring for sick.

O, I read it all. I just dont think your argument about music and caring for people is a strong one to prove that the neaderthals where intelligent. Intelligence, as Athorn put it, isnt a value. Im sure some super intelligent beings look down at us like we are idiots.

Well actually, intelligence falls into several (7-8) categories, which happen to include musical intelligence and social intelligence.

So if they made instruments and cared for their fellow Neanderthaler, they were intelligent (to some level).

Did I say intelligence was a value? What I mean is that music requires imagination. Imaginsation is something only humans seem to have much of on a complex scale compared to other animals. Music is culture basically.

birds make music.
parrots can learn words and phrases
dogs (and many other animals) can understand some human speech
dolphins can do all kinds of crazy stuff

but none of those animals are considered 'intelligent' on a level with humans. It's quite possible these suckers had some degree of intelligence. Maybe they used tools. But some monkeys use tools, so that doesn't say a whole lot.

Maybe they were all really annoying and virtually brain dead, to the point where homo sapien wiped them out because they were tired of having neanderthals drop by their caves uninvited and drinking all their eggnog.

Neanderthalers being less inteligent then Homo Sapiens doesn't degrade them to the level of midless monkeys however. Burying dead and making art is a big step higher than using a stick to look for ants in an anthole.

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Apes and monkey's care and protect their young, they also groom each other which is a form of health and care. They can be taught how to play musical instruments.

Does that make them intelligent?

To a certain level, yes.