interpretive rendering — not a tracing of the original
ʾalp
Acrophonic for ʾalp, "ox" in early Northwest Semitic. The character is still drawn from the animal — horns first, head between them. No clearly earlier abstracted form is securely attested.
Source
Wadi el-Hol Inscription 1, a limestone graffito on a cliff face along the ancient desert track between Thebes and Abydos. Published by Darnell, Dobbs-Allsopp, Lundberg, McCarter, and Zuckerman (2005). Dating estimated from associated hieratic graffiti; some scholars place the inscriptions slightly later, toward the 18th century BCE.
Children · aleph (Phoenician)
— Still an ox. Not yet a letter.