Darn, Kronck beat me to the point about the shot tower. I'd also point out that a heated cannon ball, if it was hot enough to deform that much, also wouldn't have an elongated oval shape. It would get flattened by the power of the explosion behind it. More to the point, if it was soft enough to deform that much, it would probably weld itself to the inside of the gun and cause the gun to explode when fired.
I keep looking at the dented surface of the thing. I suppose that could be corrosion that was cleaned off, but I keep thinking that some poor blacksmith got the job of trying to hammer a sub-par cannonball (or a too-big cannonball) into a diameter narrow enough for them to use it with the gun they had. It could also have been a really ugly cannonball that was discarded as too crappy/dangerous to fire.
After all, we've been assuming that it was fired, and I don't see that anyone has presented evidence to support this idea.
Best,
F
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