Wow, you’ve made my day.
The information that I have heard/read about the “Neanderthal” was that they discovered the bones of a very arthritic, and therefore perpetually hunched over, but thoroughly human being, and declared it to be an “intermediate” or a “proto-human”.
“...but thoroughly human being...” If having a brian 2x modern humans in size, a skull tilted back on the spinal cord (making them something of a soprano), and bone density 2x modern man, then yes they they were identical...