Sadly, Egyptologists have a long history of describing rock incorrectly including the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum not that long ago.

Piazzi Smyth was critical in his day, but he had several advantages over most:

Firstly, he was able arrange chemical analyses in view of his prestige as Astronomer Royal for Scotland.

Secondly, his brother was a professor of geology.

Thirdly, he had taken an interest in geology, as I did when studying the subject at university.

The Dixon relics can be attributed to Piazzi Smyth because he reasoned that there may be shafts in the so-called Queen's Chamber, so requested Dixon to investigate. From memory, I think it was a workman by the name of Bill Grundy who smashed open the stones covering the shafts.

It seems likely that the relics had no official purpose, but perhaps whoever (accidentally?) dropped the (pounding?) ball was aware of tales that hidden in the pyramid was a symbolic design of one or more spheres (if not objects that were closer in shape to a sphere).

We know workmen were bold enough to leave unofficial markings, so why not objects?

It is unlikely that AE thought the sun and moon were 2D images.

Mark