Whatever happened, the end result was the disappearance of a recognizably Neanderthal population from the fossil record while their genetic contributions persisted in the descendants of the modern humans they had met.

But Shanidar Cave, and the people who used it, were not simply a disappeared population waiting to be replaced.

For hundreds of thousands of years, they successfully inhabited a complex mountain environment, developed and transmitted sophisticated technology, maintained social networks across large geographic areas, and — if the burial evidence is credited — cared for their injured, their elderly, and their dead.

That is not failure.