How did you become an ancient egyptian soldier?

Answer 1

Old Kingdom Egypt had no professional army; peasants were drafted into service by the major temples, provincial governors and estates as and when required - they would have received minimal training and were very poorly equipped. Service would have been for only short periods, the men returning to the fields as soon as possible.

The earliest mention of a full-time professional army is during the 1st Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom that followed; a permanent royal army was established under professional officers, with better training and equipment.

We have little evidence for conscription at that time, since it seems that ranks were filled by volunteers - the life of a soldier seems to have offered a career and secure livelihood. But under the New Kingdom, the army expanded immensely and needed far more men than were available among volunteers. More and more young men were conscripted against their will, some even going into hiding to avoid being rounded up in the forced levy.

As soon as they arrived in barracks, new recruits faced a very hard and strict regime of discipline, with harsh beatings for any infractions (one text speaks of an offender being beaten by his fellow recruits "like papyrus", an allusion to the way papyrus was hammered to produce writing material).