The authors discuss the need for dates for the scrolls independent of the dating of the settlement and of palaeography. The material of the scrolls is animal skin, the major fibrous component of which is collagen, preserved in the dry conditions of the Dead Sea area and subject only to degeneration through the passage of time. This degeneration should be reflected in the shrinkage temperature of the collagen fibres. The shrinkage temperature of fibres taken from five groups of similar material of known dates ranging from A.D. 1955 to 1300 B.C. was determined and a mean curve plotted to relate shrinkage temperature to age. The results suggest: that the scroll fragments are indeed old; that they are older than parchment dated A. D. 132-135; that it is unlikely that the material dates from medieval times. -- AATA