diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index d972f7fb..2d7b083d 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 /.cxx/
+/downloads/
 /src/main/native/auto/
 
 # Ignore Gradle's project-specific cache directory:
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index c8423778..f48ec3bf 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 plugins {
     id 'java-library'  // to build JVM libraries
+    alias(libs.plugins.download) // to retrieve files from URLs
 }
 
 ext {
@@ -36,10 +37,21 @@ tasks.withType(JavaCompile) { // Java compile-time options:
 
 javadoc.dependsOn('compileTestJava')
 
+// download archived JoltPhysics source code
+
+tasks.register('download', Download) {
+    src 'https://github.com/jrouwe/JoltPhysics/archive/refs/tags/v5.0.0.zip'
+    dest file('downloads/JoltPhysics-5.0.0.zip')
+    overwrite false
+}
+
 // Register cleanup tasks:
 
-clean.dependsOn('cleanAutoHeaders')
+clean.dependsOn('cleanAutoHeaders', 'cleanDownloads')
 
 tasks.register('cleanAutoHeaders', Delete) { // auto-generated JNI headers
     delete 'src/main/native/auto'
 }
+tasks.register('cleanDownloads', Delete) { // downloaded files
+    delete 'downloads'
+}
diff --git a/gradle/libs.versions.toml b/gradle/libs.versions.toml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d2a10bd4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gradle/libs.versions.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+## catalog of libraries and plugins used to build the jolt-jni project
+
+[versions]
+
+[libraries]
+
+[bundles]
+
+[plugins]
+
+download = { id = "de.undercouch.download", version = "5.6.0" }
\ No newline at end of file