The volume focuses on the question of handicraft production and its possible dependence on Mongolian elites in Karakorum, the first capital of the Mongol Empire. The present work presents for the first time a detailed study on the development of handicraft workshops of a settlement site covering a temporal breadth of about 200 years for the area of modern-day Mongolia. The archaeological remains from the middle of Karakorum of the 13th and 14th centuries, excavated by Bonn University from 2000 to 2005 in an area south of the central crossroads, brought evidence for workshops that used iron, non-ferrous metals, precious metals, glass, mineral stones, bones as well as possibly birch bark. The analysis of these finds and their distribution as well as the distribution of features and installations used for handicraft allow structural insights into the history of the city.
