Diamonds are vastly older than any archeological relic, so carbon dating—which can only date items back to around 60,000 years ago—isnt possible. These radioactive isotopes are like tiny, slow-ticking clocks captured in the fabric of a diamond crystal.

Can carbon-14 be found in diamonds?

Interestingly, some diamonds have been tested for carbon-dating. The diamonds are supposedly more than a billion years old. As diamond structures are too tight for even a bacterium to enter, they should not contain any trace of carbon-14.

How far can carbon dating go back?

C (the period of time after which half of a given sample will have decayed) is about 5,730 years, the oldest dates that can be reliably measured by this process date to approximately 50,000 years ago, although special preparation methods occasionally make accurate analysis of older samples possible.