Archaeologists in northern France have dug up a prehistoric limestone statuette of a shapely woman that's being described as a "masterpiece".

The team in Amiens unearthed fragments of the Paleolithic-era sculpture during a search for more basic tools or bones, and carefully pieced it together.

Carbon-14 dating shows the 12 centimetre statue of a woman with big breasts and buttocks to be 23,000 years old.