"but more of a subspecies. Neanderthals had 23 pairs of chromosomes just like us and, as you pointed out before with various populations of modern Humans, without a detailed genetic study, their genome would look pretty much the same as ours. "

This is WAY open for debate. For N'Tal to be a subspecies they would have to be able to inter-breed with HSS. Did you EVER even read up on Species, Subspecies and race?

That/If N'Tal intermingled with HSS is very much an open question. Little affirmative evidence exists for interbreeding. Some (better) evidence exists suggesting that HSS shared a subspecies relationship with N'tal and maybe even HE. That evidence would nearly obviate the need for evidence of interbreeding, as it would be expected.

"Looking at them on the chromosomal level, one would be hard to tell one subspecies from another."

Okay, again, a subspecies would have to be GENETICALLY DISCERNABLE YET CAPABLE OF INTERBREEDING. The number of chromosomes is irrelevant. Thre are a vast number of plants and animals that have the SAME number of chromosomes as HSS, this does not make them a subspecies of HSS or HSS a subspecies of those animals. Apples and Orangutangs!

"Neanderthals had 23 pairs of chromosomes just like us"

Lee, do you have a source for this? I find it spurious that any determination of chromosomal number could be made from remains over 100,000 years old...

Davin