Why do dice have dots on every side?
Dots Beat Numbers
Why do dice have dots on every side?
You pick up a six-sided die and turn it in your hand. Every face has a different number of dots — one, two, three, four, five, six — carved right into the plastic or wood. Why dots? Why not paint tiny numerals like "1" or "2"? There's a reason that goes back thousands of years, and it's simpler than you think.
Dice are ancient. Really ancient. People were rolling dice in Egypt and Mesopotamia five thousand years ago, long before anyone had invented a printing press or standardized number symbols. Those early dice were made from bones, stones, or clay. You couldn't print crisp little "3"s on a chunk of sheep bone with Bronze Age tools.
