Lozenge and Nippled Decorated Lei with Sheep Head

The shoulder decoration of ram heads in high relief is similar to that found on a bronze lei vessel excavated from Xingan in Jiangxi. The protruding k'uei dragons on the shoulder, the standing birds in the shoulder decoration, and the hooks and flanges on the body are also similar to the method of decoration on a tsun vessel excavated from the more southerly area of Huarong in Hunan. For these reasons, this lei actually represents the southern style of bronze vessels in the Shang dynasty.