Saw a very interesting documentary on Neanderthals. Apparently they were even able to do some very basic smelting. The researchers, using tools etc. available to Neanderthals were barely - trace amounts - able to duplicate what the Ns had done and that was of course with probably much more knowledge of the smelting process than was known thousands of years ago.
Wish I could remember where I saw that documentary.
Probably it was this one that was on Nova -
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/160331-viking-discovery-north-america-canada-archaeology/
It was very interesting.