It's half of a bit for a horse. The design is more or less timeless, but yours seems to be modern rather than ancient. Here are a couple of germanic iron age/viking period examples:
mis.historiska.se/mis/...uid=224148
mis.historiska.se/mis/...?uid=22477
Wow you know your stuff. Been searching the web for days now without result. Now it falls into place. Thanks a lot!