The close inter-relation between different types of pyrotechnology, i.e. use of fire to fabricate plasters, ceramics, metals, glazes and glass, is stressed. Modern trends in studying early metallurgy are summarized: metallography, chemical and spectrographic analysis; trace element analysis, archeometry; isotopic analysis; geophysics, geochemistry and economic geology. The history of the rise in Westem Asia of the metallurgy of the major metals and their impurities is summarized: copper (including native copper, casting and smelting, and origins of bronze); lead and silver; tin; iron. The article includes maps, and a table of earliest occurrences of metals in S.W. Asia. -- AATA