The "first" Neanderthal fossil was found in 1856 in the Neander Valley, near Dusseldorf in Germany, hence Neanderthals. But there were scientists of Gibraltar that dug up Neanderthal fossil's 8 years earlier in 1848, and then the name would have been quite different! Alas, the fossils were put aside for years and the Germans "got in first".
The first Neanderthal skull was actually found in Gibraltar, some 8 years before the Neander Valley find, that a name was suggested, but that its remarkable meaning was not realized and the skull was put away in a cupboard until news of the German discovery broke.
As the skull was generally longer and wider, the average cranial capacity of the Neanderthals is found to be slightly larger than that of modern humans; 1500 c.c. compared to 1375 c.c. We can't necessarily say that the Neanderthals were smarter because they had bigger brains. In fact, there's some evidence to suggest that they may have been dumber than the modern humans who lived at the same time as they did. In any case, this difference isn't all that great. 20% of us have a cranial capacity greater than the Neanderthal average. .
The name "Neanderthal" is now applied to a group of fossil hominids which share certain features in common and which are known to have lived during a fairly short period of time in our not-too-distant past. Most Neanderthals have been discovered in Europe, but some have also been found in Iraq and Russia. .
We know that for many years, the Neanderthals and more modern humans lived in the same places. The dates of various fossils tell us this. In Europe, this period lasted for a few thousand years. In south-west Asia, the period may have been tens of thousands of years. There was plenty of time for them to get to know, or hate one another. .
What we don't know is if the two groups of peoples communicated with each other, traded, fought or even interbred. We can't even be sure that the Neanderthals were just a separate sub-species to modern humans.
