I ran into this error while trying to run SQLite Android Bindings. It still uses a very old gradle configuration (included below).

TLDR

com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.4.0 is very old and only available on https://maven.google.com (google() in build.gradle) as of this writing. Make sure your root build.gradle includes the google() repository in its allprojects.repositories section:

allprojects {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
        google()
    }
}

Please take protossor's advice and use NDK (Side by side) and set an ndkVersion in your build.gradle. Only use this on very old projects.

For old projects, you must install the obsolete NDK from the SDK manager. In Android Studio, open the SDK Manager and choose the SDK Tools tab. Uncheck Hide Obsolete Packages, and then scroll to the bottom to find NDK (Obsolete).

More Details

SQLite's woefully out of date gradle configuration:

$ROOT/build.gradle:

buildscript {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
        google()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.1.4'

        // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
        // in the individual module build.gradle files
    }
}

allprojects {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
        // this was the problem. google() was missing!
    }
}

$ROOT/sqlitetest/build.gradle:

android {
    compileSdkVersion 25

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 16
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
        testInstrumentationRunner "android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
    }
...
}

I ran into this error while trying to run SQLite Android Bindings. It still uses a very old gradle configuration (included below).

TLDR

com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.4.0 is very old and only available on https://maven.google.com (google() in build.gradle) as of this writing. Make sure your root build.gradle includes the google() repository in its allprojects.repositories section:

allprojects {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
        google()
    }
}

SQLite's woefully out of date gradle configuration:

$ROOT/build.gradle:

buildscript {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
        google()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.1.4'

        // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
        // in the individual module build.gradle files
    }
}

allprojects {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
        // this was the problem. google() was missing!
    }
}

$ROOT/sqlitetest/build.gradle:

android {
    compileSdkVersion 25

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 16
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
        testInstrumentationRunner "android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
    }
...
}