there goes the neighborhood

When modern humans arrived in Europe, they were greeted by the continent’s resident population. Either possessed a Stone Age technology. They might have even been closer in tech’ than they were anatomy. And both were hunter gatherers. I’ve said before, ‘if there’s anything that would bring them together, it would be to exchange technology or for a hunt.’ If they were compatible it is likely that they might have even forged civil unions but genetic evidence is sketchy. Modern humans also brought complicated networks of trade and commerce along with their new anatomies, advancements in stone working and innovations in shelter.
Technological revolutions have historically been accompanied by migrations. Early stone tool technology and fire let the Neanderthals and other archaic breeds venture out of Africa’s woodlands and into the wildernesses of Europe and the Far East. Again, with Cro-Magnon Man and Homo sapiens sapiens, populations in the savanna thrived and expanded. The hunting grounds to the north were well preserved thanks to the Neanderthals and other ‘archaic’ races' primitive hunting techniques. Archaic hunters were bound to their caves and blade technology. That limited their tactics some, led to a traumatic history with big game hunting and most importantly for modern humans migrating out of Africa it left open a niche in the natural hunting order.
In the time between the archaics’ exodus and modern human kind’s migration from the savanna, they had continued to evolve on different courses. The moderns’ command of fire, complex social networks and advanced stone technology were beyond the Neanderthals’ grasp in Europe. With a niche in the hunting order and their other advantages, Homo sapiens sapiens were able to exploit the continent like Neanderthals never could. It might have been more of an issue of ‘supremacy’ for modern humans than it was for more instinctual Neanderthals. Negotiations between the two would have been disastrous. Over the course of their isolations, either had acquired distinct logistical issues. And the colonization that occurred during the Upper Palaeolithic might have absorbed the Neanderthals in its wake.
Tides and sea levels rose at the end of the Ice Age. It probably would have been a time of geological activity too. Stone Age cultures around the world had to adopt early seaborne skills and technology to reach what used to be overland destinations. Human kind had been migrating out of Africa for hundreds of thousands of years and the most recent exodus had been replacing more archaic cousin-breeds on at least three continents. Homo sapiens sapiens spanned the Stone Age World before a shrinking ice cap separated them until the Dark Ages. They might be most famous for creating the mystery behind the Neanderthals' fate. In a lot of ways they just had the misfortune of filling in a niche in the hunting hierarchy. They did it so well that they became the authority on the continent. What’s left of Neanderthal culture lives on in archaeology lectures and works of fiction. And maybe a history lesson on the importance of adaptability.