Radiocarbon dates can be obtained only from organic materials, and many archaeological sites offer little or no organic preservation. Even if organic preservation is excellent, the organic materials themselves are not always the items of greatest interest to the archaeologist. However, their association with cultural features such as house remains or fireplaces may make organic substances such as charcoal and bone suitable choices for radiocarbon dating. A crucial problem is that the resulting date measures only the time since the death of a plant or animal, and it is up to the archaeologist to record evidence that the death of the organism is directly related to or associated with the human activities represented by the artifacts and cultural features.

Many sites in Arctic Canada contain charcoal derived from driftwood that was collected by ancient people and used for fuel. A radiocarbon date on driftwood may be several centuries older than expected, because the tree may have died hundreds of years before it was used to light a fire. In forested areas it is not uncommon to find the charred roots of trees extending downward into archaeological materials buried at deeper levels in a site. Charcoal from such roots may be the result of a forest fire that occurred hundreds of years after the archaeological materials were buried, and a radiocarbon date on such charcoal will yield an age younger than expected.