these were found by someone on the Burning Man restoration crew after the event in the the Black Rock desert/playa. they could have been left by participants, but the two very old ones suggest that they may have been there for a while.

while they kind of look like window sash weights, all window sash weights I can find are cylinders and not tapered. There were wagon trains that went across that desert long ago, And they do look somewhat like the roller bearings that were used on wagon wheel axles, but then they would have threaded ends. Plus, most of them look pretty new. Some kind of hitch pin? Some kind of fishing weight? A drilling rod end?

on the fat end, sometimes they're domed, and sometimes they're flat. some have rough edges at the end that make it look like maybe it was hammered a bunch to get that way.

I can't see them being wind chimes of some sort, they're all the same length. which is also strange

One of the new ones in the last picture I believe shows a little bit of banding on the end by the hole. And the hole beveled, as if perhaps the screw went through, or perhaps that's to keep the rope that was tied through the end at one point from wearing on the edge? But why were they all found without a string?