A Statue of the mušḫuššu of Marduk at Babylon?

This paper deals with the possibility of retracing the monumental setting of ancient contexts now lost and not documented directly by the study of indirect sources that describe them, literally or visually. The assumption is that monuments that did not come down to the present day can nonetheless be studied and contextualized thanks to what is echoed in literary or epigraphic sources and to their depiction in other media, especially seals and seal impressions. Both phenomena are attested for the classical world and the ancient Near East, though only the former has been particularly investigated. This derives from a rooted tradition and profusion of documents, particularly since the spreading of what we call Hellenising art. Here, the possibility that one or more now-lost statues representing the mušḫuššu, the serpo-dragon of Marduk, were erected at Babylon at least since the Late Babylonian period is discussed on the basis of both epigraphic and iconographic evidence.