structural:expansion, information:filtering
Pre-Zhou stylistic development

Beginning in the 1930s and culminating in 1953, the art historian Max Loehr identified a developmental sequence of five decorative styles found on pre-Zhou bronze vessels. The vessels Loehr worked with were unprovenanced, but he assumed that they had all originated from the Late Shang site of Yinxu (in modern Anyang), the only site that had been excavated by that time. When subsequent excavations at various sites yielded vessels with archaeological context, his sequence was confirmed. However, the timescale was longer than he had envisaged, beginning in the Erlitou period and reaching his Style V early in the Late Shang period.