diff --git a/doc/articles/scripts.md b/doc/articles/scripts.md
index 06e7c784d..ff9c8b5bc 100644
--- a/doc/articles/scripts.md
+++ b/doc/articles/scripts.md
@@ -40,6 +40,8 @@ Composer fires the following named events during its execution process:
   installed, during the `create-project` command.
 - **post-create-project-cmd**: occurs after the `create-project` command is
   executed.
+- **pre-archive-cmd**: occurs before the `archive` command is executed.
+- **post-archive-cmd**: occurs after the `archive` command is executed.
 
 **NOTE: Composer makes no assumptions about the state of your dependencies 
 prior to `install` or `update`. Therefore, you should not specify scripts that 
diff --git a/src/Composer/Command/ArchiveCommand.php b/src/Composer/Command/ArchiveCommand.php
index 03e8600fa..7a57ca13b 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Command/ArchiveCommand.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Command/ArchiveCommand.php
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ use Composer\IO\IOInterface;
 use Composer\DependencyResolver\Pool;
 use Composer\Package\LinkConstraint\VersionConstraint;
 use Composer\Repository\CompositeRepository;
+use Composer\Script\ScriptEvents;
 
 use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputArgument;
 use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputInterface;
@@ -55,13 +56,20 @@ EOT
 
     protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output)
     {
-        return $this->archive(
+        $this->getComposer()->getEventDispatcher()->dispatchScript(ScriptEvents::PRE_ARCHIVE_CMD);
+
+        $returnCode = $this->archive(
             $this->getIO(),
             $input->getArgument('package'),
             $input->getArgument('version'),
             $input->getOption('format'),
             $input->getOption('dir')
         );
+
+        if (0 === $returnCode) {
+            $this->getComposer()->getEventDispatcher()->dispatchScript(ScriptEvents::POST_ARCHIVE_CMD);
+        }
+        return $returnCode;
     }
 
     protected function archive(IOInterface $io, $packageName = null, $version = null, $format = 'tar', $dest = '.')
diff --git a/src/Composer/Script/ScriptEvents.php b/src/Composer/Script/ScriptEvents.php
index 5f3eaafd8..64ecbc8c5 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Script/ScriptEvents.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Script/ScriptEvents.php
@@ -165,4 +165,22 @@ class ScriptEvents
      */
     const POST_CREATE_PROJECT_CMD = 'post-create-project-cmd';
 
+    /**
+     * The PRE_ARCHIVE_CMD event occurs before the update command is executed.
+     *
+     * The event listener method receives a Composer\Script\CommandEvent instance.
+     *
+     * @var string
+     */
+    const PRE_ARCHIVE_CMD = 'pre-archive-cmd';
+
+    /**
+     * The POST_ARCHIVE_CMD event occurs after the status command is executed.
+     *
+     * The event listener method receives a Composer\Script\CommandEvent instance.
+     *
+     * @var string
+     */
+    const POST_ARCHIVE_CMD = 'post-archive-cmd';
+
 }