In the context of code shipping, an archive:
that are used to distribute a release or a snaphost
A archive is also known as:
Archive are generally deployed (stored) in a repository.
A source archive contains the source file. See Code Shipping - Source (Distribution|Archive)
A build/distribution/binary archive contains the compiled code ready to be used. see Code Shipping - Binary Distribution
The structure and content of the archive is language dependent but the whole set of file is usually aggregated in on file using one of this technology: