RadioCarbon Dating Ancient Writing Bones Ivory?

Question

How do archaeologists know when the writing occurred on an old piece of ivory or bone.
Lets say the ivory is over 5,000 years old. Lets say somebody found the ivory 3,500 years ago and decided to write something on it.
Would the archaeologist date the writing to be as old as the ivory. Can they tell if the writing itself is younger than the material it is written on.

Answer 1

Actually the post above is correct (despite what those that gave it a thumbs down think).

The thing is they can also find how old markings or some form of paint and ink are. Yes, its a guess, but they can make some reasonable ones (at times).

Answer 2

Carbon dating is a reasonably accurate way of dating MATERIAL, but not the use of that material.
Carbon 14 deteriorates at a steady known rate...and in fact carbon dating can only go back so far, when the measurable differences disappear....that is several tens of thousands of years.
It can be further refined by various cross measurements and calculations- not always done.

Answer 3

Carbon dating is mostly a guess. In fact it isn't even know if carbon decay at a linear or exponential rate because we can't observe it long enough.