True, although the harshness of Ice Age Europe varied over time. It wasn't some hellish landscape but a thriving ecosystem with all sorts of wildlife and other

True, although the harshness of Ice Age Europe varied over time. It wasn't some hellish landscape but a thriving ecosystem with all sorts of wildlife and other food sources. The difference is that Neanderthals had hundreds of thousands of years to adapt to the environment of Ice Age Europe. They had even evolved actual physical adaptations to help them with the cold. But the humans who moved into the Arctic only had a few thousand years at most to adapt, if that. Neanderthals certainly weren't dumb and primitive, but as you said they were narrowly focused. Modern humans were able to rapidly adapt their lifestyles and technology to allow them to thrive in extreme environments such as the Arctic.