Rudolf Erich Raspe improbable", but wrote: "... the reader may be assured that this part of the narrative is founded on a fact of actual occurrence." Rudolf Erich Raspe Rudolf Erich Raspe (March 1736 – 16 November 1794) was a German librarian, writer, and scientist, called by his biographer John Patrick Carswell a "rogue". He is best known for his collection of tall tales, "" also known as "Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia", originally a satirical work with political aims. Raspe was born in Hanover, and baptised on 28 March 1736. He studied law and jurisprudence at
Writing origin. A stone slab with 3,000-year-old writing, known as the Cascajal Block, was discovered in the Mexican state of Veracruz and is an example of the oldest script in the Western Hemisphere, preceding the oldest Zapotec writing by approximately 500 years. It is thought to be Olmec. Of several pre-Columbian scripts in Mesoamerica, the one that appears to have been best developed, and the only one to be deciphered, is the Maya script. The earliest inscription identified as Maya dates to the 3rd century BC. Maya writing used logograms complemented by a set of syllabic glyphs, somewhat similar in function