Metallurgy is specifically defined as the study of metallic alloys, or more plainly, how combining metals reacts; but it is also defined as the technology of alloys as well.

The term "Metallurgy" derives from the Greek word "metallourgs" which literally means "Metal work".

With the Bronze Age being generally accepted as one of the first technological booms for metallurgy, iron would begin to take hold later by the Hittites, in 1,500 B.C. Iron was a peculiar metal, as it is weaker than Bronze in its intial state. It wouldn't be a few hundreds years later that the process of re-smelting iron could create steel, a much harder metal.