The Impossibility of Double Gallows

[nickpelling]

In my opinion, it is necessary to take into account that when writing “4o” different diacritical marks are used, and in different positions, which can mean different meanings. I tend to support the point of view of JKP.

For the qo + flat macron/overbar, there are only two definite examples (the third is debatable): that's not a lot of data to draw inferences from, considering how many qo's there are in the text.

For the qo + curved macron/overbar, the four examples are all in Currier A pages (as I recall), so it seems likely to me to be an early writing system experiment that was dropped along the way. If we knew the order in which the pages had originally been written, that would be very helpful.

If it was a universal mark or part of the system (as you seem to assume), we'd expect to see it throughout the text: but we don't.