4. Fischer had noticed there were clay stains on the Q tablet: ... Two types of clay (one variegated, one brown) were evidently once applied to the artefact for some obscure reason; this has left clay smears that blur entire segments of glyphs. Colours function as Signs. Red for example can mean 'great'. Black, white, and different shades of grey, characterize night time, but in the light from Sun more beautiful colours appear. The light needs to be strong before our eyes can perceive them. In principle, I think, the rongorongo texts ought to have had colours because they should be read only in strong light. Fischer commented regarding the Mamari tablet: "The recto is darker in colour with light streaks in the upper and lower areas; the verso is in general lighter. The tablet is not fluted." The fact that the glyphs not are located down in secure text channels but up on the surface (not fluted) is noteworthy. It could be a Sign and if so I suspect it refers to the nightside rather than to the heliacal side:
North of the equator texts are written on the surface of paper, therefore texts south of the equator should in contrast be written down inside the wood. (Unless they are intended to be read in the night by blind men feeling the text with their fingers.) Side a of the Mamari tablet contains the beginning of its text and this side of the tablet is darker than side b. The first half of an island to meet Sun in the early morning lies in the east and this side of a Polynesian island was regarded as dark in contrast to the white side in the west.
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