What is an EAR archive?

An EAR archive is used to deploy standalone EJBs, usually separated from the web application. Thus, there is no need for a web application to access these EJBs. The EJBs are still accessible though using EJB clients.

The EAR Plugin throws an exception when encountering artifact types it is unfamiliar with. Is this a bug?

The exception can be prevented by adding your custom artifact type to the artifactTypeMappings configuration. There is a mini-guide on how to do that in the modules configuration section.