Recontruction of Belt from Herculaneum and Pompeii in 79 AD.

[Tarbicus]

Also interesting that he would have worn the pugio at the centre of his back.

Could that be the result of much of the body's volume being lost to a superheated pyroclastic surge, thought to have knocked him and others on the beach face down (IIRC there is conjecture that he and others were blown off the harbour wall onto the beach)? The loss of body mass may have caused the frogs and plates at the sides to settle further towards the middle with gravity? If it wasn't, then I wonder if the simple decay of the corpse could give the same result?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyroclastic_surge