The first 2 years of life are a critical window of opportunity for ensuring optimal child growth and development. In Ethiopia, the magnitude of the minimum acceptable diet ranges from 7 to 74⋅6 %. The evidence revealed the variation and unrelated data on the prevalence of minimum acceptable diet. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the minimum acceptable diet and its associated factors among children aged 6–23 months in Lalibela town administration, northeast Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Lalibela town administration, northeast Ethiopia among 387 mothers/caregivers with children aged 6–23 months from May 1 to 30, 2022. The data were entered by Epidata version 3.1 and analysed by SPSS version 25.0. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was fitted to identify factors associated with minimum acceptable diet. The degrees of association were assessed using an adjusted odds ratio with a 95 % confidence interval and P-value of 0⋅05. The magnitude of minimum acceptable diet in the study area was 16⋅7 % (95 % confidence interval: 12⋅8–20⋅6 %). Sex of child, getting infant and young child feeding counselling at antenatal care, infant feeding practice-related knowledge and childhood illness are the variables that were found to be an independent predictor of minimum acceptable diet. Health facilities should strengthen infant feeding counselling starting from antenatal care visits during pregnancy for the recommended minimum acceptable diet is crucial.

The monolithic churches of Lalibela are commonly regarded as evidence for the shift of the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia from Aksum to the Ethiopian Highlands during the thirteenth century AD. Recent research, however, has shown that the rock-cut churches were not created ex nihilo. New archaeological evidence has emerged for an earlier, local troglodytic culture, particularly at Washa Mika'el, further illuminating the cosmopolitan society that existed in medieval Ethiopia. This article considers the role played by this troglodytic culture in the Christianisation of the Ethiopian Highlands and how it attests continuity with its predecessors, especially in the way that sculpted decor are perpetuated and transformed in the frame of a new religious background.

The rock-cut churches of Ethiopia have long intrigued visitors and historians – and have frustrated archaeologists seeking their sequence of construction. Do they belong to one grand ceremonial monastic plan, or a long-lived ritual centre, continually refashioned over time? Since the churches are cut into live rock, the conventional signals of archaeological phasing are hard to find. The authors address these problems at the famous site of Lalibela, showing that, embedded in the cuts and openings, the spoil heaps, and even in the now vanished sediments, the stratigraphic sequence is there to be read.