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human
What level of culture did Neanderthals have?

I know (now, through searching) that the sub is inundated with Neanderthal questions, but they mostly seem to be DNA and extinction related. So hopefully this is different enough. I wanted to ask what the current thinking is on the level of Neanderthal culture at the Upper Paleolithic boundary and beyond?

Last I remember (class in undergrad 10 years ago?), there are some indications of art, bone tools, harpoons (?). More reliable indications of caring for the elderly and for burial, and post-Mousterian toolset innovations. There seemed to be new findings about Neanderthal art and tools coming in occasionally, and they were always followed by Zilhao & d'Errico writing something like a "See! Told you *too* Neanderthals are super duper smart!" kind of interpretation and Paul Mellars writing something like "oh, it's misattributed and misdated, but if it turns out to somehow be Neanderthals, they prolly just stole it from a nearby sapien and didn't know what the hell it did". So did this question get resolved somehow? What's the general consensus on Neanderthals? Did they make cave paintings? Did they have music? Could they sew? Did they invent the Chatelperronian toolset or did they just steal all the ideas of the Aurignacian without figuring out what did what? Or does that even matter?

If you want to give me references, I'd be super happy!
gpt
Neanderthals made advanced tools, had a language (the nature of which is debated) and lived in complex social groups. The Molodova archaeological site in eastern Ukraine suggests some Neanderthals built dwellings using animal bones. A building was made of mammoth skulls, jaws, tusks and leg bones, and had 25 hearths inside.