The hand-carved cesta was used as a staff or a blocking device, but also doubled as a means of launching boomas at targets. Essentially a larger version of the atlatl, the cesta was tipped with a cradle large enough to accommodate a single energy ball. A proficient Gungan warrior used his cesta to fling a booma around one hundred meters, though such throws were not always accurate due to the primitive nature of the weapon. The cesta's cradle was often decorated with carvings of symbols and icons of personal significance to individual warriors. Survivors of the Battle of Grassy Plains memorialized their fallen comrades by carving their names into the handles of their cestas.
Episode I: The Visual Dictionary labels two different weapons as the "cesta", one of which is a simple throwing spear, the other is a cup-tipped weapon which other sources have correctly identified as the atlatl. The Encyclopedia entry on StarWars.com seems to confirm this with a picture of Jar Jar Binks wielding a throwing spear.