Much of the surviving information about the Scyths comes from the Greek historian Herodotus ( c. 440 BC ) in his Histories , and archaeologically from the exquisite goldwork found in Scythian burial mounds in Ukraine and Southern Russia . Much of the surviving information about the Scythians comes from the Greek historian Herodotus ( c. 440 BC ) in his Histories and Ovid in his poem of exile Epistulae ex Ponto , and archaeologically from the depictions of Scythian life shown in relief on exquisite goldwork found in Scythian burial mounds in Ukraine and Southern Russia .