Their skulls show adaptations for speech, and evidence of large brains, in some cases larger than our own. They had more advanced stone tools than their predecessors, a whole range of tools for different functions. It is likely that they also made tools from wood or bone that have not survived. They made shelters, usually at the mouths of caves or against rock overhangs, and lit fires at the entrance for heat, light, to cook food and to keep predators away. Neanderthal life would be understandable to us, although it must have been hard.
Many Neanderthal bodies show broken bones and old, healed wounds.
Even the children show well developed muscles, suggesting that making a living was a labour-intensive process, that everyone had to be involved in. On the other hand, some of the wounds and traumas that Neanderthals suffered must have made them unable to walk or get food. The fact that the broken bones have healed shows that injured or infirm people were cared for and fed until they recovered. It might be our fault, or at least the fault of our ancestors. At the time when the Neanderthal populations begin to decline, Modern Humans were entering Europe for the first time.