ABSTRACT
The fate of the Neandertals is similarly mysterious to many. In popular culture, the fascination with Neandertals and their fate is often confounded by continued misunderstanding about who they were and how they lived. Neandertals have been given various scientific names as well. The Neandertals have endured considerable bad press. Neandertals were in fact fully bipedal. Contrary to popular conceptions, Neandertals were not idiots. The presence of Neandertals in the Middle East demonstrated that they had a greater geographic range than at first imagined. The Middle Eastern Neandertals were considered by some anthropologists to be more similar to anatomically modern humans. The situation for the Middle Eastern Neandertals has also been complicated, with some arguing for a long period of coexistence between Neandertals and anatomically modern humans, and others questioning whether the two groups ever actually lived in the Middle East at the same time.
