diff --git a/rakelib/artifacts.rake b/rakelib/artifacts.rake
index 619a97325d..87a57d262b 100644
--- a/rakelib/artifacts.rake
+++ b/rakelib/artifacts.rake
@@ -664,12 +664,14 @@ namespace "artifact" do
 
     def write_to_tar(tar, path, path_in_tar)
       stat = File.lstat(path)
+      # in the off-chance that mtime returns nil we don't want nil to be interpreted as epoch, so fall back to Time.now
+      mtime = (stat.mtime || Time.now).to_i
       if stat.directory?
-        tar.mkdir(path_in_tar, :mode => stat.mode)
+        tar.mkdir(path_in_tar, :mode => stat.mode, :mtime => mtime)
       elsif stat.symlink?
-        tar.symlink(path_in_tar, File.readlink(path), :mode => stat.mode)
+        tar.symlink(path_in_tar, File.readlink(path), :mode => stat.mode, :mtime => mtime)
       else
-        tar.add_file_simple(path_in_tar, :mode => stat.mode, :size => stat.size, :mtime => (stat.mtime || Time.now).to_i) do |io|
+        tar.add_file_simple(path_in_tar, :mode => stat.mode, :size => stat.size, :mtime => mtime) do |io|
           File.open(path, 'rb') do |fd|
             chunk = nil
             size = 0