Strange Cylindrical artifacts

[Commando Peach]

I think they're just a throwback to Penumbra, in which very similar-looking cylinders can be touched to save the game. When you touch them, you either feel memories of your father, who had passed through the area ahead of you, or the protagonist comments that he can feel himself "slipping away" and into the thing.

So perhaps it's a memory storage device that somehow made its way out of Penumbra and into Amnesia. I have no idea why they're there.