A simple finite element procedure is presented in this paper for plane wave propagation in inhomogeneous linear viscoelastic solids. Because of the employment of the differential form of the constitutive relations in the governing equations, the standard finite element spatial discretization results in a set of higher order ordinary differential equations. An explicit method is then developed to perform direct time integration. Numerical results for several example problems were obtained, which are in excellent agreement with solutions using the method of characteristics. (C) 1995 Academic Press Limited