An apparatus and test method were developed to determine the elastic stiffness and damping coefficient of human cartilage in compression. An underdamped, counterbalanced beam applied a sudden compressive force to a full-thickness cylindrical specimen of articular cartilage. The initial oscillatory response decayed to steady state creep after approximately 10 cycles of oscillation. The results were consistent with a Voigt phenomenological model with linear stiffness and damping terms. Standard dynamics analysis of the transient oscillatory response enabled the elastic stiffness to be determined from the frequency and the damping coefficient to be derived from the logarithmic decrement of the decay of the oscillations. The relationship between the mechanical properties and structure of cartilage was determined by treating specimens with two specific proteolytic enzymes. Digestion and removal of proteoglycans alone with cathepsin D caused the damping coefficient to decrease with no change in elastic stiffness. The action of leukocyte elastase on collagen caused a decrease in both damping coefficient and elastic stiffness. It was concluded that the collagen fibrils in cartilage largely control the elastic response while the viscous response is controlled largely by the hydrated proteoglycans. The effects of cartilage thickness was also examined and found to be inversely proportional to the elastic stiffness. It is suggested that this method could be used to uncouple elastic and viscous properties of other viscoelastic materials.