The paper proposes to trace the graphical development of ‘Initial-A-Final’ from the Hittite Empire Period seals through the early and late Transitional Periods of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions and demonstrate that an intermediate category, termed ‘Initial-A-Displacement’, is required to describe the earliest Iron Age data. This graphical development occurred separately from any linguistic development, though it is acknowledged that IAF/IAD must have had some origin in Luwian phonology, and brief discussion of the relationship is offered at the end of the paper. Additionally, an appendix of every attestation of the a sign in the Hieroglyphic Luwian Corpus, from the Empire seals to the end of the Transitional Period in the mid-ninth century BC is provided.