The radiocarbon (¹⁴C) method is a well-known isotopic dating technique by which age can be assigned to organic materials, including human bone. Natural and anthropogenic anomalies in ¹⁴C activity in the biosphere over the last few centuries, including the presence of artificial or “bomb” ¹⁴C after 1950, can be used as an isotopic tracer to assign human bone samples with high degrees of probability to one of three temporal periods within the recent past: a Non-modern period (before about A.D. 1650) of no forensic science interest, a Pre-modern period (A.D. 1650 to 1950) of possible or potential forensic science interest, and a Modern period (A.D. 1950 to the present) of definite forensic science interest. We illustrate the use of the ¹⁴C method to assign human bone in five forensic science cases to one of these time periods.