If the sample does not have traces of a particular isotope you can rest assured that it dates back prior to the allocated time of the isotope. You can then shift to another isotope with a longer half-life to find if the sample dates back to the time of this isotope. For instance, carbon 14 has a half-life of 5730 years.
This means that any sample more than 75000 years old will not have any trace of this isotope. However, you can shift to potassium 40 which has a half-life of 1.25 billion years and find out if the sample existed in its time frame.
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