There's definitely a God...

I think an early human would struggle with the WAIS-III IQ test, which is the gold standard in psychology, but so do a lot of people from non-anglo-saxon cultures, and a debate rages about whether that test - and other tests - measure 'real' intelligence.

Neanderthals were our closest relatives, rather than our ancestors, which sort of underlines the point. Our closest living relative is probably the gorilla, and whilst we might know a clever gorilla when we see one, their intelligence is different from ours, but we can recognize it as intelligence nonetheless.

When I talk about Humans/People I am talking exclusively about our species.

I think the point the palaeontologist was trying to make was that if you took someone from 1000s of year ago while they were young/newborn, educated them etc. They wouldn't be any different from you or me as long as they were a homo sapian, and not a earlier species of human.

Then again, I study computing so what do I know....