So apparently they are indeed only known to have lived in Eurasian zones. I was thinking they they’d been more wide-spread. At some point, they’dve had to come from africa, as well.

Africa being the original continent of all humans is nothing new, and the modern humans and neanderthals, would still have shared a common ancestor, making the idea of a “real” human line kind of tasteless.

The “lower” status of neanderthals is also widely disputed. Just the fact that crossbreeding with fertile results was possible, means the genetic difference was small indeed.