There is no evidence presented in this article to support the title. None whatsoever. Quite to the contrary, the article falsely proclaims: "The archaeological record doesn't tell us one way or another.." In actuality, this article is completely divorced from the most recent research, which points exclusively in the opposite direction: That modern humans did not interbreed with Neanderthal.
That may be but you have not seen my Brother in Law.
Besides I think it was proven that by the mear existence of the French it proved that the Mongrel's breed with goats and pigs of eastern Europe.
From what I see walking around, some "women" still do!
In fact there was always a big mystery as to why there was zero evidence of crossbreeding despite the two groups living in close proximity for long periods of time. The DNA studies pretty much resolved the mystery. WE could no more interbreed with neanderthals than we could with horses. Moreover, doing it with a neanderthal would not be that much different than doing it with an ape.
You are correct. They have found Neanderthal in Israel (near Carmel) that dated to about 92,000 years, and also Homo Sapiens Sapiens that dated about 102,000 years - we were contemporaneous with them (NOT descended from them!) Apparently, they were Hunter Gatherers and limited intelligently, while the Homo Sapiens Sapiens were farmers and more family oriented and had a better language and intelligence. Why Neanderthal died out, and we did not is a mystery to Anthropologists...