The phrase "be dated back to" is correct and commonly used in written English.
It is typically used to indicate the time period in which something originated or was first recorded. Example: The tradition of exchanging gifts during the Christmas season can be dated back to ancient Roman times.
The celebrity stalking industry can be dated back to the 1950s, when enterprising young bucks on Hollywood Boulevard began selling maps showing the homes of movie stars.
More general use of that symbol by the Swiss confederates can be dated back to 1339 and the Battle of Laupen.
The change may be dated back to 1967 when Winnie Ewing arrived to take up her seat at Westminster as the first MP for the Scottish National Party.
But the roots of the problem can be dated back to 2007, when it acquired rival bank Antonveneta from Santander of Spain.
First, Anne-Claire Taittinger, the president of Baccarat, whose founding can be dated back to Napoleon's rout at Waterloo, sold the structure housing the company's incredible archive to an art dealer for $8 million.
Modern capitalism can be dated back to the Reformation of the early 16th century and for five centuries it was organised within the confines of increasingly powerful nation states.
In fact, the modern usage of the word can be dated back to Gray's lifetime and the change in meaning was part of the 18th-century cult of order and of human control of nature.
This can be dated back to the welfare state that Chancellor Otto von Bismarck established in the late 19th century to head off what he saw as the menace of socialism.
Family members said that Lord Redesdale's dramatic physical decline could be dated back to the day Decca ran away, though surely Diana's marriage to Mosley and Unity's stalking of Hitler and subsequent suicide attempt (she shot herself in the head on the day England declared war on Germany; the pistol she used had been a gift from the Fuhrer) can't have helped.
It can only be dated back to the period of Early Mandarin Chinese.
Using emulsion to enhance heat transfer can be dated back to 1959 by Moore [41].
