Id of object guesses?

[Plumbata]

Woohoo, I make sense! [] I knew it would happen one of these days; it only took 23 years!

 

[beendiggin]

I wouldn't want anyone pounding that thing into the side of MY house. Wood siding would split BIG TIME.
I'm not saying it WASN'T used that way but that doesn't seem plausible to me.

Usually the downspout is located at the end of the gutter run at the end of the eave and the bracket is installed into the cornerboard, not into the siding. It's the same procedure with modern gutter systems, just the materials have changed. Now brackets are screwed to the face of the cornerboards instead of being driven into them.