interpretive rendering — not a tracing of the original
aleph
From ʾalp, with several intermediate forms not yet plated: the pictogram abstracted to its essential lines, orientation rotated counter-clockwise, the animal flattened away. The acrophonic principle remains; the picture does not.
Source
Sarcophagus of Ahiram of Byblos, lid inscription. Excavated 1923 by Pierre Montet. Dating contested — commonly placed c. 1000 BCE, though arguments have ranged from the 13th to the 9th century BCE. The form here is representative of early Iron Age Phoenician.
Parent · ʾalp (Proto-Sinaitic)
— The horns still point, but the ox is gone.